Break Me
by ari87
Summary: Arella thought she had escaped the hard life she had become accustomed to as a child. But it's difficult to escape your past, and one man was more than willing to show her exactly what she deserved. Rated M for violence and themes! Possible hint of romance in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

****Hey Guys! This is my first actual story so sorry for any grammatical errors, but I was anxious to get this out and hear what you all thought!****

Arella sat back in the chair with a sigh for what seemed like the first time in hours. Setting the saturated paint brush and pallet aside, she studied the large painting before her for signs or imperfections that she would spend the rest of the day fixing. The small museum that she had worked in for the last few years had recently acquired a relatively big name collection from an anonymous wealthy donor, and though most pieces were in impeccable condition, she had spent the last 3 months working on a number of works that required thorough cleaning, repairing, and paint corrections. It seemed like a tall and tedious order, but she'd be lying if she didn't admit that she found the quiet practice to be soothing. Unlike most of the full time staff in the building, she was given her own studio overlooking the Gotham city inlet through picturesque windows. Gorgeous works that cost more than her entire life adorned various easels waiting for her attention and there was nothing more satisfying when she completed repairs on a work to reveal a nearly brand new looking painting. Her studio was her place of peace and she often stayed to work late simply because she felt better here than she ever did at home.

She finally gave a small satisfied smile at the painting before popping her iPod headphones out of her ears and setting the player aside as well, raising her arms over her head in a long overdue stretch. She held the position until she finally heard a few satisfied cracks. It was already two in the afternoon and she just realized that she had yet to eat today.

'That can't be healthy.' She thought to herself as she stood, walking over to the window and placing her hands on her hips as she looked out over the museum gardens. The grounds were surprisingly empty of people aside from a fancy van in the parking lot which she was sure had been left by one of the drunk wedding guests from a wedding the night before. It had been there all day and she hadn't seen the owner. It was a common occurrence after rowdy parties on the grounds. She only rolled her eyes before turning away from the window. She grabbed her badge, leaving the room and shutting the door behind her, locking it automatically. She made her way to the kitchen where there always promised to be some sort of food left over from the many events the museum held.

"Hey, Nora." She smiled at the girl sitting at the kitchen table hovering her spoon over a bowl of soup as she focused on a book in her other hand.

"Hey!" She looked up, surprised, As if she had only just noticed someone else was in the room with her. "Sorry, I was…really into this part." She glanced at the book as if debating before shutting it and setting it down. Nora had only just started working at the museum three weeks ago fresh out of school. She was still somewhat shy around everyone, but Arella found her refreshing. A wide eyed naivity that was rarely seen past the age of 25.

"That's okay." She said with a laugh. "Must be pretty good. What are you reading?"

"The seventh Harry Potter book." She said excitedly.

Arella glanced at her, confused.

"I know. I know. I'm a little late getting into it. But I wasn't allowed to read it when I was younger so now that I have my own place, I'm trying to catch up on everything. Yesterday, I had cake for breakfast." She said in a low voice as if she was telling a secret.

"Whoa now. Don't get too wild." Arella teased, opening the fridge and grabbing a coke and a handful of almonds.

Nora gave a shy smile.

"Are your parents still on you about the move to Gotham?" She questioned, leaning against the counter.

"Oh my god, every day." She said with a sigh. "I keep telling them that I'm as far away from the narrows as physically possible, but nothing makes them happy except po dunk, nowhere." She rolled her eyes.

She chuckled. "It really isn't near as bad as people make it out to be. Well, outside of the narrows at least. With the Joker in Arkham and batman…wherever he is, there's not a whole lot going on anymore, not like a couple of years ago."

"Oh yea. I heard about that whole thing, along with every other psychopath that lives here. Apparently Gotham draws the crazies."

"Why else would we be here?" Arella joked before standing straight, tossing back a couple of almonds. "I'm going to go take a walk outside."

"Okay." Nora called, immediately returning to her book as her conversation partner left.

Arella headed out of the door, starting on her loop around the building along the shoreline. From here she could see the heart of Gotham rising out of the water in the distance with giant skyscrapers whose jarring metal construction stood in sharp contrast to the peaceful waters leading to them. Even still, she enjoyed the view; especially when dusk would begin to settle and the many lights would flicker on as a reminder of the steady pulse of life that continued to hum in the main city. It had been years since the city had lived under the fear of attack from the Joker and even after all that time, the city still operated as if this period of peace was new to them. People were more grateful, kinder, and easier to get along with as a general rule. Perhaps everyone knew, deep down, that what they felt was the truth. That based on Gotham's track record, it was only a matter of time before some other psycho took up the mantle. Before the mob began running rampant again, and before that uncertainty returned and that they should enjoy this peace with every ounce of hope in their bones.

It was late when Arella finally returned to her apartment in one of the nicer areas of Gothem. She wasn't near up to the financial callibur as most of the city's elite, but she was perfectly content with her doorman guarded high rise that shielded her from many of the more unsavory parts of the city. It was a large improvement from the apartment that she grew up in that was a stone's throw away from a strip club on the edge of the narrows that served as one of the biggest hangouts for the many mob bosses. It was a dangerous area for sure and she had seen the disastrous effect it had on many of the kids who grew up in the neighborhood; most of whom were dead, in prison, or part of the mobs that made their lives miserable. Arella had managed to escape the worse of it. Being raised by her extremely strict grandmother, she was allowed to do little more than go to and from school. She hated that she could interact with the other kids when they played in the streets below her window and hated even more that they made fun of her because of it. She had managed a couple of friendships through school over the years, but even those would fall by the wayside in later years when they would hang out at the mall or coffee shops without her. Even being so shielded, it wasn't a rare occurrence that she would hear a crime outside of her window in the middle of the night. It seemed like once a week there was a vicious murder, brutal rape, or both occurring outside of the club. She learned early on that it was easier to simply fall asleep with her headphones in and pretend she was somewhere else.

It's not surprise then that when her grandmother died during her senior year in high school, Arella quickly enrolled in Gotham University with the generous insurance payout. She wanted to get out of the neighborhood, she had to. And though college wasn't an option before, now it seemed like the only way. So she moved on campus and buried her head in her books, managing to secure a number of scholarships to make up for what the insurance money didn't cover. And when grad school became a viable option, she jumped at the chance too. She had made a promise to herself that she would get out, and upon graduating, she did. Even during the worst of times, her apartment's location had shielded her from the constant criminal barrage that seemed to descend upon the narrows. Now she had a doorman, an elevator, a car to make sure she never had to ride the subway, and a sense of security that allowed her to breathe easy.

"Good evening, Mrs. Burke." The doorman smiled, opening the door for her after she had handed her keys off to the valet.

"Hey Patrick." She smiled, walking in "How's everything?"

"Lovely." He gave a polite nod. "You've received a package at the front desk."

"Oh, yay." She squealed happily, already knowing what it was. "Thank you." She said quickly before practically running to the desk. The lady at the desk looked up at her and smiled warmly, pulling the box from behind the desk before she could even make it there.

"I'm assuming you already know what it is?" She smiled teasingly as Arella held out her hands greedily.

"Yes. I've been waiting on this for days." She took the box. "I've been saving for a dress from Barney's and I was finally able to order it. And now it's here." She grinned.

"Well no wonder you're excited. I won't hold you up any longer than, I'm sure you want to try it on."

"Bye." She waved briskly, rushing off to the elevator and up to her apartment. When she opened the door she was immediately greeted by a far too overweight cat meowing at her ankles, rubbing it's back against her.

"Hey Louie." She muttered, stroking his back quickly before setting the box on the counter, opening it. Louie hopped onto the counter as well, looking up at her curiously before looking down into the box as well, anxious for her to finish with it so that he could play.

She grinned down at the purple dress before yanking it out of the box, rushing into her room to try it on. She came out a moment later wearing the knee length outfit, standing in front of the full length mirror near her front door. It was perfect. The purple color looked absolutely amazing with her dark brown curls and smooth brown skin. It was fitted nearly the whole way down with a high neck that opened up into a small dip around the back. She had sent them her measurements when she ordered it, so it fit like a glove, accentuating every curve in a classy way. She would definitely wear this to work as soon as she found the perfect pair of shoes.

"What do you think, Louie?" She asked, still grinning.

Louie looked up from the box he had curled up in with a lazy, uninterested gaze before shutting his eyes again.

"I like it too." She said softly, continuing to admire herself in the mirror for a moment before feeling a small frown tug at the corner of her mouth as she realized how hungry she actually was. "Ugh." A small groan left her lips as she headed back to her room, removing the dress as she did. As if the realization that she was in fact hungry made it so much worse she made her way to the kitchen without caring to throw anything else on. Dinner was simple as she hap hazerdly poured a bunch of shrimp in a pan with some garlic, watching them turn pink in only five minutes before pouring them in a bowl and flopping down on the couch followed quickly by Louie who had been sniffing the air excitedly. She chuckled, handing him a shrimp before turning her attention to the television which was showing the news.

"Screw that." She muttered, picking up the remote and changing the channel. She had long ago lost her appetite for watching the sensationalized stories that had become the bread and butter of the local news station. It seemed even worse now that crime was on the decline as the various news stations scurried to grasp onto to any story that seemed promising. Tonight though, it seemed like they had a real story on their hands. One that Arella was oblivious to as she settled into watching a movie instead, missing by mere seconds the breaking news interruption that occurred on most of the major channels. A mistake that she would come to regret soon.

The next morning, Arella headed into work thinking more about the trip to the store she was planning later that day in order to purchase shoes for her new dress. She was a little bummed that she couldn't wear it today, but she had settled instead on a tailored skirt and heels that made her feel almost as amazing as the dress did when she tried it on.

"Morning Lisa." She smiled at the front desk person as she walked in. "Where is everyone?" She questioned, noticing that lack of cars in the employee parking lot.

"Oh, everyone's freaking out about the news yesterday and decided to stay home." She gave a dismissive wave. "I mean Nora, Shawn, and Melanie are here in their offices, but that's about it."

"Uh oh. What happened now?" She questioned with an annoyed sigh.

"You didn't see it?" Lisa looked at her, her blue eyes widening in anticipation, excited to spill the beans about a topic that nearly everyone already new about. She didn't give her time to answer, leaning forward with her arms on the counter and lowering her voice for dramatic effect. "Apparently, the Joker escaped from Arkham."

She gasped, that was definitely not what she had been expecting to hear, her look of mild amusement gave way to legitimate concern as her mouth dropped slightly. "What? Last night?"

"Well that's what they said on the news. But I told you that my brother is on the Gotham Police force, and he told me that it's actually been weeks. They didn't want to scare anyone while they were on the hunt but he's started making threats on the news last night. So of course they had to scramble to cover their asses. Anyway, they're telling everyone to stay inside today while they-" Her wide eyes, which betrayed her barely hidden excitement of the situation, squinted judgementally as she cut herself and placed her hands on her hips. "How on earth did you not hear about any of this?"

"I don't watch the news." Arella said with another exasperated sigh, shaking her head slowly as if to rid it of all of the information that she had just received. "Why are you here, then? Why is anyone here?"

Lisa gave a non-committal shrug and roll of the eyes, settling back into the seat. "I live in the narrows. I figured here was safer than anyplace out there, right?"

Arella felt herself relax for a moment. "Yea." She gave a soft smile. "Promise me you'll stay at least? I don't want you heading home at night by yourself. Especially not on the subway. You know how much the Joker loves blowing up train cars." She said in an effort to be light hearted about the situation though it seemed to only make her anxious again.

Lisa only gave a sympathetic smile, having become used to Arella's bad attempts at humor over the years and learning to brush it off with a laugh. "Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere. I have my suitcase upstairs in the morning room."

If this keeps up I might run home and grab mine too." She muttered before picking her handbag off of the counter. "I'll be in the studio if you need me." She started off before stopping and turning around. "You know what, there's no point in keeping the actual museum wide open. You should go ahead and lock the door so that you can keep an eye on who comes and goes."

Lisa chuckled, rolling her eyes. "It's fine, really. Don't go getting all paranoid like everyone else. Nora and Shawn have been watching the news all day. It's not like we're a bank."

"I'm paranoid by nature." She said with another smile, turning and walking off. She headed upstairs, stopping into Nora's office where she saw all three of the other employees huddled around a small flat screen, completely oblivious to her precense in the doorway.

"Hey." She said finally only to be greeted with a short scream from Nora and Shawn almost falling out of the chair.

"Holy shit, Ari." Shawn sighed, gripping the table next to him for balance as Nora turned with her hands covering her mouth, trying to calm herself.

Arella felt the urge to burst into laughter if only to quell the awkwardness. It came out instead as a short snort and a broad grin. "I'm sorry." She said, though still smiling at the hilariousness of the situation. "On edge?"

"No." Shawn finally released the table before sighing and running a hand through his curly red hair. "I mean yea. Just the news."

"Has he done anything yet?" She questioned, crossing her arms as she took another step in, looking towards the television with interest, playing nervously with her bracelet.

"No. Nothing. They just keep playing the same video over and over." Melanie said, having barely turned around from the screen. "I was scared to stay at home by myself."

"Yea." She mumbled, staring at the screen which was on a frozen image of the joker's face in the middle of a recorded message. His terrifying grin front and center showing a row of yellow teeth and painful looking scars that seemed to only be emphasized by the bright red paint smeared haphazardly across his lips and cheeks. She could barely make out his eyes through the black paint that surrounded them. Not that she wanted to, she was terrified to see what kind of emotion a man of his caliber would portray through them. In a perfect world, it'd be regret, but Gotham was far from perfect. And it was men like him that reminded them every day. She was roused from her stupor by the sound of Shawn's voice.

"What?" She looked at him, confused.

"I said you look nice."

She smiled, grateful for the distraction. When he began working here a little over a year ago, he immediately let it be known that he was attracted to her. . And she honestly thought he was pretty cute but had always been unsure of how she felt about starting workplace relationships. That hadn't stopped them from engaging in a few ill advised trysts, however that she was sure would eventually lead to more. "Thanks." She replied, uncrossing her arms and standing up straight. "I'm going to head to the studio and try to get some work done." She waved, walking off. She had made it most of to her office before she heard footsteps behind her.

"Hey." She heard Shawn call out to her.

She glanced behind her, seeing him jog nearer to her. "What's up?" She questioned, slowing her pace to allow him to catch up but still heading to unlock the door.

"I think the girls are all going to stay here for the night or a couple of days, I don't know. Are you going to stay too?" He questioned, following her into the studio.

She chuckled as she set her bag on a long counter against the wall, taking a quick glance around the room to make sure that everything was in place. "No. I might leave early though just so I can get home before dark but I'm not too worried about it."

"Don't lie to me, Ari." He leaned on the counter, crossing his arms as he stare at her back.

She turned around finally with a sigh, realizing that there was no humor in his face. His strong jaw was set into a determined frown that, as annoyed as he attempted to look, only made her painted lips turn up into a slight smile. "Fine. I am worried, a little. But I don't want to live like that. We were fine last time and I'm sure we'll be fine this time." She waved her hand dismissively.

"You don't know that."

"And you don't know that we won't."

He pursed his lips, stepping closer to her as his green eyes locked on her brown ones, studying her for a moment as he probably tried to think of a way to convince her of the danger. He finally let out a sigh, placing his hands on the counter on either side of her, pinning her in place.

Arella held her breath, looking up at him. It was extremely rare that he was so forward with her at work, but she could tell it was his way of trying to get her to give him her full attention. So she did, though the closeness was somewhat exciting to her as she glanced down at his strong arms, crossing her arms in front of her in an attempt to block the effect he was having on her right now. "I'm not staying." She said resolutely.

"Fine." He said simply. "But I'm going to stay at my parent's second home outside the city tonight. I want you to come with me."

She sighed. It was quite often that she forgot that Shawn's parents were loaded and though they were currently living outside of the country, they were sure to provide their only son with every luxury here in the city. "That's the opposite way of my apartment and I don't have any clothes." She said, looking for any reason to refuse.

"There's a department store on the way, we'll stop and get you some things."

"What? No. I don't need you to-"

"I don't want you going back into the city."

"I can take care of myself!" She replied in a hushed yell, narrowing her eyes angrily.

He sighed, lowering his head for a moment which unintentionally put his face closer to hers.

"I'm sorry." She said, feeling immediately guilty. Having to be on her own since she was 17, she had a tendency to be overly stubborn and it had been her downfall many times. "I don't mean to be difficult it's just…I'm scared."

"I know. I am too. And I don't want you alone while he's still out."

"I have Louie." She gave a playful smirk.

He chuckled before raising his head again. "I'll make you a deal. If we can leave in the next couple of hours, we'll run to your place so that you can get some clothes and Louie, then head out."

She twisted her lips in contemplation, considering the option. "No funny business?" She asked finally, though with the slightest hint of teasing in her tone.

"Not unless you want it." He joked as well, smiling now.

"Fine." She rolled her eyes playfully, placing her hand on his wrist and moving his hand from the counter, ducking under it to get around him before walking over to a painting she had been working on a few days prior. "Let me check on the varnish on this painting and we can go."

He only smiled, leaving the room without a word.

Later that night, Arella was relaxing on the terrace of Shawn's mansion after they had grabbed her things and stopped by the department store for her to pick out shoes for her dress. She had only been here once before and even then she was pretty wasted, but the home was awe inspiring to be sure. It was nearly 6,000 square feet and though far enough from Gotham to inspire a sense of security, it still boasted beautiful views of the city that made it look almost peaceful from here.

"Hey." Shawn came out on the terrace as well holding a couple of plates. "I made you a sandwich. I'm pretty sure you haven't eaten all day."

"Oh wow. Thanks!" She said, taking the sandwich, happily as he sat next to her. "I just realized that. Peanut butter?" She questioned, already lifting up the bread to peek before giving a happy grin. "Heck yea."

He laughed. "You're welcome."

They sat quietly for a moment as they ate, looking over at the city in the distance.

"What do you think he's planning?" Arella questioned finally.

"I don't know if we'll ever know till it happens." He said with a shrug. "my parents want me to move out to London with them."

She looked over at him. "Are you going?"

He shrugged. "I'm starting to consider it. This is insane."

"Yea." She agreed softly. "I honestly don't see why you didn't head to London in the first place. I would kill to be able to do that." She smiled setting the plate aside and drawing her knees to her chest, trying to lighten the mood. "I mean I've only been once but it's amazing."

"Eh, the people here are cooler." He said with a shy smile.

"Even that's not true." She rolled her eyes, though knowing full well what he meant. There was a short silence before she turned to him seriously. "Honestly, though, I hope you're not staying here for me."

"What? No." He said with a nervous laugh. "I mean who wants to stay with their parents at my age anyway? I like it here." He paused. "But…if you ever wanted to visit again…"

She laughed, ignoring the offer before standing with a stretch. "I should probably be getting to bed anyway. Some of us still have to work in the morning."

"What? You're working tomorrow?" He looked over his shoulder at her as she headed towards the door.

"Well yea. Melanie doesn't want to just leave everything as it is even if no one is coming. I have to make sure all the work is okay."

"Melanie's a crazy bitch." He muttered, knowing that there was no use arguing the point.

She smiled, stepping behind his chair and placing her hands on the back of it, gazing over at him. "Thanks for bringing me here, though, even if I didn't want to come at first. I feel a lot safer."

He looked up at her and smiled. "I'm glad."

She reached over the chair, running a gentle hand through his curls before resting her hand on his cheek and placing a gentle kiss on his lips, one that was met with eagerness on his part as his hand snaked up to the back of her neck holding her closer as he traced her lips with his tongue, urging her to part them. She happily complied, beginning to massage his tongue with her own, melting into the kiss for a long moment, ignoring the annoying twinge in her neck signaling how uncomfortable of the angle she was standing in for such a long while. Finally she pulled away with a smile, her lips only inches away from his allowing her to feel his ragged breath on her face. "Come to bed with me?" She questioned, caressing his arm.

"No funny business?" He teased.

"I can't promise anything." She smiled, turning and walking inside, knowing that he'd be only steps behind her.

The next afternoon, Arella was back in her studio working on stabilizing the pieces in her studio so that if need be, they could stand alone for a period of time. The other girls were still there from the night before but they still seemed to be in sleepover mode as they giggled at a movie on the first floor television. To be fair, aside from Arella's job, there wasn't a lot to be done around the museum at the time and she was almost positive that was spending more time herself sneaking glimpses of herself in the mirror wearing her new purple dress than she was focusing on the paintings. Shawn had barely been able to keep his hands off of her when he had seen her wearing it making it take twice as long to leave as it normally would. She had to admit that she looked stunning. Her long, golden brown hair had been curled away from her face and cascaded down her back in sharp contrast to the haphazard pony tail she usually settled on. It was nice to be able to distract herself away from what was going on in the city by any means necessary and between spending extra time on her appearance and on Shawn, she was almost able to forget completely. She was enjoying playing house with him in the overly ornate mansion. At this rate, she might begin strongly considering moving with him to London for a bit. In the meantime, she was busying herself with thinking about Shawn who was back at the mansion waiting for her. He had at first insisted on going with her to work, but she convinced him that it was completely unnecessary. Now she kind of wish she had let him for the company alone. She sighed, picking up her iPod and placing the headphones in her ear again before going back to work.

Downstairs, Nora and Melanie were watching a Disney movie as the doors remained locked. They had made themselves comfortable huddled up together in a blanket as they awaited for the pizza delivery that had been ordered over thirty minutes ago.

"After this, we should actually watch an adult movie." Melanie said lazily, her legs crossed in front of her as she cuddled the blanket close to her chin. She had voted against the Disney movie, but both Nora and Lisa had overruled her.

"What, like Pirates of the Caribbean, Curse of the Black Hole?" Lisa joked, finding her phrasing humorous.

"You're disgusting." Melanie said though laughing.

"That's not what it's called, is it?" Nora looked from one girl to the other, confused.

"No, sweetie, it's not." Lisa pat her knee gently. "Don't worry about it. Honestly, after this we should go see if Arella needs any help."

"She never wants help." Melanie said with a shrug. "She's just ready to get out of here so she can go back to Shawn."

The other two laughed. "It's supposed to be a secret, Melanie." Lisa scolded.

"Well, it's not like they act super secret about it." She said as the doorbell rang.

Lisa rolled her eyes with a sigh, tossing the blanket off of her lap as she stood. "I'll get it. You guys can buy pizza next time." She headed to the front door. "Just a minute." She called, stopping at the desk to grab her wallet and pull a twenty out. She jogged over to the door as the bell rang again. "I said I'm coming!" She called again, glancing out of the peephole to see the pizza guy standing there impatiently, his hat pulled low as he shifted his weight. "Jesus Christ." She muttered, opening the door. "What's the-"

She cut herself off as her mouth dropped as the pizza guy lifted his head showcasing a face full of white grease paint and a vicious Glasgow smile that up until this moment, she had only seen on news channels.

"Surprise." The Joker grinned with that annoying, nasily high pitched voice that everyone in Gotham had learned to fear. She wasn't even able to let out a scream before the Joker raised his hidden hand with a flash of silver that he instantly buried in her throat forcing out a soft gurgling sound instead as blood instantly begin to ooze from the wound. He let out a satisfied growl before quickly pulling his hand away before his bright purple suit could be stained with blood, allowing her to drop to the floor in front of him with a sickening thud as four of his men clad in equally frightening clown masks filtered into the museum on either side of him. "You know what to do, boys." He held his hands out dramatically towards the halls, reaching up and pulling off the pizza company hat that he had 'borrowed' from the delivery boy they had intercepted on the way here. He shook his head, much like a wet dog sending greasy, green curls over his forehead, completing his fearsome outfit. It was only a moment before he heard the screams of the other two women in the nearby break room. He looked up, letting out a giddy cackle, clapping his hands as he hopped up and down. "Oh how I've _missed _this." He exclaimed to no one in particular before taking large excited steps to the source of the screams. He rounded the corner to find his goons tying the women's wrists and placing gags in their mouths before shoving them roughly back onto the couch and stepping back to the corners of the room holding large rifles, looking to the boss for instruction.

The Joker looked towards the women with a scowl, studying them for a moment before turning to the television and suddenly grinning. " and the _Beast-ah_. You know," he gave a dramatic turn on his heels, waving the bloody knife at them both as he slouched over them. "This is one of my _favorites."_ He cocked his head to the side as his grin quickly changed to pursed lips as he studied them. "You want. To know. Why?" He enunciated each word as he looked from face to face looming over them as if patiently awaiting their answers.

Melanie shivered violently as her wet eyes darted quickly between the knife and the animated face of the madman, unsure of how to respond. Nora on the other hand shook her head quickly.

"Well, you see…" He continued undeterred, flopping on the couch between the two of them and throwing his arms around their shoulders. Nora whimpered, looking over to the knife which had begun dripping down her white shirt. "I've always considered myself to be…" he sucked on the inside of his scars as he rolled his eyes up towards the ceiling, thinking. "A bit of a beauty." He gestured with his knife, enjoying the sound of Nora's muffled shrieks every time the knife came to close to her face. "Like your_selves_." He looked over at Melanie for a second longer than a glance, just to watch her squirm as his face was only inches from hers before finally continuing. "And what beauty doesn't want a chance to tame his very own beast?" He made the sickening sucking sound again as his lyrical voice lowered to a low, animalistic growl as he leaned forward, taking a loud sniff of Nora's hair before leaning in her ear. "I know I do."

That seemed to be more than Nora could take as she finally broke down into muffled sobs, shrinking away from him as she was completely oblivious to the dangerous grin that had formed on his face.

"Sh-Sh-Sh-Sh." The Joker frowned at her with false concern, reaching out and taking her chin in his gloved hand as his voice rose back to the lyrical notes. "Now don't cry." He pulled her face up towards him roughly in sharp contrast to his gentle tone. "Look at me." He waited until she raised her teary eyes to him. "Now, I don't want to _hurt_ you. But I have found my hideout to be…_lacking…_in the cultural sense. You don't mind if I take a look around, do ya?" He questioned, tracing circles in the air with his knife while forcing her to shake her head simultaneously. "No? Good." He smacked the side of her face gently before standing and turning to his goons his voice returning to complete seriousness. "You two, check upstairs. If you find anyone, kill them." He waved them away, waiting for them to disappear before turning to the others. "You two, keep our guests company."

"Yea, we'll keep 'em company boss." The first goon replied suggestively, eying the girls with a hungry look behind the clown mask.

The Joker stare at the goon for a moment before reaching for the second goon's gun. "Gimmie." He said simply. "Gimmie. Gimmie. Gimmie ." He continued impatiently before snatching the gun, shooting the one who spoke before he could ask questions and turning to the second one studying his expression before finally speaking. "Think you can handle the job, kid?" He waved the gun casually, ignoring the twitching body at his feet.

The clown only gave a curt nod, being sure to not look at the girls or the dying man at his feet.

"Take his gun." He growled, turning and storming out of the room. "I want it quiet." He shouted, waving his arms behind him as he disappeared out of the room, grumbling something about incompetent help.

****love it or hate it, I'd LOVE to hear your feedback!****


	2. Chapter 2

****Here's chapter two, uncharacteristically fast. Updates will most definitely take a little longer than a few hours from here on out, but at least this gives a better idea of where this is headed!**

**Disclaimer mumbo: I do not own any of this fictional work aside from ones of my own creation!****

Upstairs, Arella was singing to herself through a ventilation mask as one of her favorite songs played on the iPod. She was applying a varnish coating to another painting so that it wouldn't be ruined once she covered it and placed it in storage. The second one that she had worked on today. Hopefully, at this rate, she'd be done by the end of the week with all of the paintings that were in the lab waiting for her attention. She stepped back with the large paint brush in hand, admiring the painting for a long moment. It was one of her favorites in the collection, an oversized art noveu piece that was strongly reminiscent of Gustav Klimt. She gave it a wistful smile before turning to set the brush down for a moment. When she did, however, she froze seeing two clowns standing in the doorway, eyeing her hungrily as they both toted large guns in their hands. Her mouth dropped as they all stare at each other for a long moment in silence. She had seen enough news stories to realize what those masks meant and who they worked for. But her mind couldn't seem to process the danger that had just interrupted what had initially been a serene moment.

"Hey there, girlie." One of them cocked his head to the side, his mouth hidden by the clown mask. "Why'd you stop?"

She didn't reply, taking a slow step back, looking around for the alternative escape route that she knew wasn't there.

"She's cute, isn't she." The clown turned to his friend, tilting his head towards her.

"Boss said to kill whoever we find." The second one grumbled, raising his gun, causing Arella to squeak, jumping back.

"We will." The first one placed a hand on the gun, lowering it. "But mind as well have a little fun with her first." He handed his gun to the second goon, already reaching down and beginning to unbuckle his belt excitedly. "If she gets close to the door, then you can shoot her."

"Five minutes." The second goon grumbled. "Or else I shoot you both."

"No." Arella said softly, reaching blindly for the counter behind her and trying to side step the man coming for her. "No. No. No." She shook her head quickly as she searched for another escape. She had no doubts that the man guarding the door wouldn't hesitate to shoot her and all the windows in the room were sealed for what was supposed to be protection. Maybe if she could smash them she could get through them before she managed to get shot. She glanced behind her before looking back at the man advancing towards her, slowly unzipping his pants as if to tease her. Her eyes darted behind her quickly again before she suddenly turned, making a run for the windows, still only holding the paint brush. The goon only laughed, grabbing her around the waist before she managed to make it two steps away. She finally screamed as loud as she could, immediately beginning to kick and claw at the arms around her. Her new heels may have foiled her initial escape plan, but they were killer weapons.

The goon gave an annoyed growl in her ear, attempting to rip off the ventilation mask but only managing to pulling it further up on her head as he finally managed to force her around to face him, shoving her back against the wall as she began to cry. He gave a breathless laugh, wrapping his hand around her neck and squeezing as the fingers from his second hand yanked the hem of her dress up to her hips.

She coughed, screaming still as she clawed at his face, ripping the mask off and taking some skin with it. She whimpered, desperately reaching to grab lower now. She couldn't believe this was happening right now and there was no one there who cared to stop it. She raised her tear stained brown eyes to the second goon momentarily in the desperate hope that he would help her but he hadn't moved a muscle and she knew he wouldn't. A feeling of helplessness that she hadn't felt in years caused her to stop struggling momentarily as a sob escaped her lips. Every mistake that she had made in the past week leading up to this point seemed to run through her head. She should have taken the news reports seriously, should have realized that the Joker and his men had no boundaries; not in Gotham anyway. How stupid could she have been to think she was safe here, or at her apartment? Then again, had she ever been safe? She had done such a good job crafting a bubble for herself to live in that she had gotten to comfortable. Even still, all she wanted to do was go back to that bubble. Maybe if she just calmed down and let it happen, they'd let her live. The feel of the man's hand at the lining of her underwear was enough to bring her out of her frozen state. She let out another scream that turned into a growl as she reached down below the goon's now exposed cock, wrapping her hands tightly around his balls and squeezing with all her might, digging her nails in his most sensitive areas which led to the him letting out an angry shout that reminded her of a dying animal. He pulled his hands away from her and instinctually punched her twice in the gut forcing a guttural groan from her as they both released each other. Him to double over in an attempt to lessen his pain and her to fall to the floor in agony with a cry. She quickly yanked the dress back down, starting to crawl to the door before stopping and looking up at the second goon who was pointing the gun at her still.

"Please." She begged in a voice that she almost didn't recognize. "Please let me go. Please." She begged, still on her hands and knees.

The man didn't reply, letting out a dry chuckle.

"I won't tell. I promise I-" She cut herself off as another scream came out when a pair of large hands grabbed her waist, dragging her backwards across the floor even as she clawed the wood, trying to stop him. He grabbed the back of her neck, pushing her to the floor and crawling on top of her, straddling her back as he leaned closer to her ear. "It's going to feel so good to kill you after this." He yanked her skirt back up as he sat up straight. She could feel his erection against her upper thigh, already leaking excitedly with pre cum. Another sob escaped her throat as she punched the floor angrily, knowing that she was stuck. He was too heavy to move from this position and she had the sinking feeling that any struggling would only make it feel that much better for him. Instead she squinted her eyes shut, waiting for the inevitable violation. Perhaps she deserved it. It was rare that women made it out of her neighborhood unscathed and she had made it longer than most. It was stupid to think she could simply run away and pretend her childhood never existed and now this man was here to remind her. Suddenly, the sound of two bursts of machine gun fire forced another scream from her mouth and her hands flew to her head as a guard, as if it would have actually saved her. She lay still for what seemed like forever, positive that she had been hit and that death would be coming any moment. The feel of her attacker's heavy body falling against her back forced her confused eyes open. It was the voice that brought the fear full circle however.

"You _know,_" The nasely voice started, forcing her eyes upwards. "It is… So…_hard-_ah to find a decent criminal these days." He threw his hand in the air dramatically with a shake of the head as if she understood completely.

She froze, looking towards the doorway where one guard was lying in a pool of blood. It was then that she noticed the warmth seeping through the back of her dress and a sinking feeling descended on her stomach. With a whimper, her head turned hesitantly to look behind her where she was immediately met by the surprised eyes of the dying second goon no more than two inches away from her own. A shriek filled the air as she pushed the body off of her, flipping over and scrambling as far away from the body as possible, all the while frantically rubbing her arms in a vain attempt to remove the blood. The mask that was still perched precariously on her head fell to the floor with a loud clatter, the noise startling her even further. It took her another minute for her to calm down enough to look back up at the Joker who was standing in front of the painting she had been working on only minutes before. His hands on his waist as he bent forward with a contemplative scowl that hovered only inches away from the wet varnish, seemingly oblivious to the fact she was still in the room, much less that she was freaking out. The silence calmed her momentarily as she stare at the man before her in terrified awe. The man who had single handedly brought the city to its knees and killed countless citizens. The man she had been warned about for years was now only a few feet away from her. If she thought she was scared before, the fear she felt now would surely kill her.

Suddenly the silence was broken by a giddy cackle as he finally stood up straight, seemingly having gleaned everything from the painting he wanted. "Now _this…_" he started with his back to her still. "This is _art-ah." _He pressed his hands together in a single clap, beginning to pace back and forth in front of the large canvas as if he was a normal art connosoir in a museum and not in this insane situation, not bothering to turn around. "I _knew _I picked the right place." He said with a happy growl, waving his knife at the painting, a move that filled Arella with fear. She looked towards the now open doorway. With the Joker enthralled in the painting, there was a chance she could make it out of the room before he had a chance to aim. He seemed to read her mind, however as she shifted on the floor.

"Ah Ah _ah_." He waved the gun over his shoulder as a warning, continuing to study the painting.

Her breath hitched in her throat as she froze, wrapping her arms around herself slowly so as not to alarm him. Maybe he would let her go, still. It was quite possible that all he wanted was the painting. It was definitely worth enough for an art heist, and he did save her.

Finally he turned around with a grin. "I'll take it." He said simply, leaning against the nearby counter as if waiting for her to do something.

She looked up at him uncertainly, still rooted to her spot on the floor as the corners of his mouth quickly turned down into a frown as he studied her. His patience quickly wore thin as he stood up straight with a grunt, carelessly tossing the gun on the counter and pulling a stained knife from his pocket as he closed the distance between them in three quick steps causing her to shrink away from him, tightening her arms around herself tighter with a whimper and turning away from him.

"Hey dum-dum." He reached out with his knife free hand, knocking on her head as if he were knocking on a door. "Anyone in there?" He grabbed her arm, yanking her off the floor roughly and shoving her towards the work. "I _said _wrap it up. I'm taking it." he mimed the act of carrying an object as if she were a child.

She stood briefly, knowing that she had to make a move before the Joker turned on her. She gave the work one last look before looking down at her feet. "No." She said finally, barely above a whisper, unable to stop the tremors that began to go through her body.

The Joker leaned forward, cupping his hand to his ear and squinting. "Come again?"

"I can't." She corrected quickly. "It's…wet."

"_Wet_?" He repeated with a shrieking giggle. "Did you-ah-did you just finish painting it?"

She nodded slowly biting her lip as she tried to find her voice again, still not looking up at him. "Varnish." It would be really great if at some point, she could find the strength to form complete sentences. But while looking at the Joker was intimidating, not being able to see his movements was terrifying. Even with his slouched posture, he towered over her, and as animated as his face was, she had no idea how to read his ever changing emotions. More so, her adrenaline was beginning to wear low and the pain from being mauled and physically assaulted was steadily kicking in. She placed a hand on her head feeling a mixture of a migraine and nausea coming on.

The Joker finally stopped laughing though a lazy smile remained on his lips as he leaned over against the counter again and crossing both his arms and ankles. "What's wrong, dollface?" He questioned as if truly interested. "You feel _ill_? Hmm?" he tilted his head to the side with a contemplative frown.

She didn't reply, shutting her eyes as she tried to tune out the sound of his voice along with the pain she was feeling. It was precisely the wrong thing to do. Before she realized what was happening, before she heard him, she felt him grab her chin roughly and shake her head back and forth with a growl as if trying to wake her up. The motion was enough to force her to push away from him and run to a corner of the room, emptying the contents of her stomach onto the floor.

The Joker giggled again walking up behind her as his bad mood seemed to dissipate almost immediately. "You _know, _you could have just…._answered_ me sweet cheeks. Speaking from a purely…_theatrical _view;" He held his arms out dramatically as he hovered over her, completely unfazed by the sights and sounds of her sickness. "This is just _over_kill." He said teasingly.

He gave her a moment to wipe her mouth before reaching out and grabbing her chin again, yanking her up to face him so that their bodies were uncomfortably pressed together. Embarrassment forced her to avert her gaze. It was silly, but she was feeling highly self-conscious about the smell of vomit on her breath. She highly doubted he would notice anyway judging by his poor oral hygiene and she realized that it was trivial at this point, but she already felt like her dignity had been stripped away from her. At this point she wasn't sure how much she had left. The Joker wasn't having any of it though, forcing her face towards him. "Look at me." He said in an almost calm, sing songy voice.

She raised her eyes to him, taking in his appearance in its entirety for the first time. It seemed cliché to say that he was absolutely terrifying, but the picture she always saw on the news didn't do him justice. It was his scars that she heard people speak about most often, and for good reason. They were disgusting to look at. The ridged haphazard texture alone seemed to tell a story of a man who had gone through hell to get them. What made it worse, however, was the way he showcased them. The red makeup spread across them made them look constantly wet, as if they were still oozing after all this time. He obviously enjoyed them, the attention he received, the fear they instilled, and the way they contorted with his rapidly changing expressions. She wouldn't be surprised if that was why he seemed so animated all the time, just to feel them. It'd be even less surprising if she were to find out he did the scars himself. But as disgusting as they were, it was his eyes that kept her frozen in her place. Surrounded with the black eye makeup, he looked like he was in a constant state of anger, no matter the emotion his grin transferred. Even staring directly into them, she couldn't tell what color his eyes were. What she could tell was that she had been wrong that day that now seemed so long ago. There wasn't an ounce of regret in those eyes, just pure, unfettered joy. And that scared her more than anything.

He allowed her to take in his face for a moment, even opening his mouth to stretch the scars as he cracked his neck before raising the knife in his hand to stroke her arm, almost gently though not allowing her to turn her head to stare at the knife in horror. The simple action was torturing her, and he knew it. Finally, he broke the awkward silence with a low voice that had removed all of the previous lyrical notes. "Did you know you were wearing my _favorite_ color? Hmm?" He tilted his head closer to her so that he could look her straight in the eye, nodding his head as if to answer his own question before his tongue darted out against the scar carving his lower lip. "It's like you _knew…_just. How. To. Flatter. me." He moved the knife to her collarbone, tapping against each one to match his syllables. "And I _am.." _He pulled away ever so slightly so that he could give her a slow look, up and down. "_flattered." _He growled before gnashing and baring rows of yellow teeth at her in a short lived grin. Arella felt like she was going to vomit again. She was almost certain she could feel the beginnings of an erection on against her hip, but it could be the trauma clouding her interpretation of the situation.

"Now." He continued in a gentle voice normally reserved for misbehaved children, using the knife to brush a mess of stray hair out of his face before returning it to her neck, tracing it back and forth as if creating an invisible line for him to follow when he was ready to slit her throat. "When I ask you if you're ill, what do you say?" He looked at her expectantly

"Yes." She managed to squeak out. Afraid to move her throat much for fear of being cut.

"Yes." He repeated slowly, forcing her to nod, though much gentler this time. "And when someone saves you from being _torn apart_-" He frowned as he annunciated the words as if they physically pained him to say it. "-by overzealous henchmen?"

She swallowed, not believing she was having this conversation right now. Either way, she didn't want to keep him waiting. "Thank you?"

He let out a broad grin, finally stepping away from her with his arms out to the emphasizing mock amazement as his voice returned to the clown like notes she was familiar with. "It _can _be taught." He spun to the rest of the room as if there was an audience watching the show. He turned back to her, waving the knife at her again. "I _like _you." His tongue flicked out again as he nearly skipped towards her. "Tell you what, kid. I consider myself a-ah-connesoir of sorts." He gestured with the knife. "And I don't think I'd be able to _live_ with myself if I undid all of your _work."_ He pressed his hands to his heart and tilted his head with a small bow. He was making fun of her, she could tell that much, but she'd just stand here and take it. It was all she could do…all she was willing to do. She had long ago figured that even if she did make it to the door, he probably had plenty more goons throughout the museum. She couldn't think of a scenario where she made it out of this room alive and as much as it scared her to admit, she was slowly coming to terms with that. Even as he spoke, she being to make amends in her mind, trying to go to a place in her head that relaxed her. She kept alternating between her cozy apartment and the night before at Shawn's place. It didn't matter which one she settled on, or which was the last, she was content with both. The Joker seemed oblivious to her dazing, however as he continued. Oblivious or uncaring, she wasn't sure, not that it mattered much. He was going to kill her, at this point she was just hoping that he'd make it fast.

"_So_." He stepped close enough to jolt her out of her dazing, lifting the knife to her neck again and pressing just enough to draw a small line of blood. He watched it ooze for a moment before leaning in her ear. "How about I show you a little magic trick instead?"

With that, Arella could slowly feel the summation of the dwindling adrenaline, the unfathomable amounts of pain, and the indescribable terror working against her and pulling her down into a dark hole that she feared she may never return from. She blinked slowly, struggling to stay alert as the Joker studied her face with interest, pulling the knife away from her throat. He wanted her to answer him, she knew he did. But when she attempted to open her mouth in reply, the darkness overtook her and the room begin to fade around her, leaving her with the terrifying rumbling of the Joker's laughter in her ears.

When Arella finally came to, the first thing she was able to register was the intense pain in her face and body as everything that had just happened came flooding back. Almost instantaneously, she took in the clear blue sky above her, realizing she was lying on the museum grass. She had made it out. Somehow, she had survived, and that was enough right now. A small smile crept along her lips as she lay there, almost perfectly still, feeling more peaceful than she had felt in a while. Before she worked at the museum, she would come out to the grounds as a college student and do just this. It was something that she immediately promised herself she would do more often. Once she found the strength to get up, she would go to the doctor for a checkup, find the most expensive psychiatrist she could afford, maybe take an extended vacation to London with Shawn, then come back and lay just like this. She began to make all kinds of plans that immediately came crashing down upon her like a wall of brick upon hearing one nasally, annoying, life changing voice.

"Welcome back, doll face." He said, seconds before his face came into her field of view, blocking the beautiful clear blue sky like the imposing shadow that he was.

She groaned softly, about to close her eyes again but being awoken by a slap on the cheeks. It was then that she remembered the events upstairs which had spared her facial harm. The reason her face hurt so bad right now was due to the Joker's repeated slaps. She immediately cringed, bringing her hand to her cheek.

"No, no." He kneeled above her, sliding his hands beneath her back and lifting her almost effortlessly into a sitting position. "Trust me; you are going to want to _see _this." He quickly sat behind her in the grass, setting his knees on either side of her to prop up her arms.

Arella felt disgusted, attempting to pull away from him but he gripped her shoulder with a firm gloved hand holding her body in place. She did manage to hold her head up with much difficulty, however. As much as it pained her, she'd be damned if she allowed herself to rest her head on his chest. Directly in front of her, she could see the museum in its entirety, standing peacefully as if nothing had happened.

"Nora…"She managed to mumble, realizing that her coworkers weren't outside with her.

"Oh your _friends_?" He replied with a sneer, speaking over her shoulder to her. "They're unharmed, still inside and waiting on the boys in blue to come and _save_ them." He sniggered. Something about the way he emphasized the word 'save' caused her stomach to drop to the ground. She had no idea what he was planning, but she was terrified to find out. He perked up as he said it as if he were a dog listening to the sounds of scurrying prey. An apt analogy, she thought to herself.

"Looks like they're almost here." He sang as the sounds of sirens became clearer, lifting her arms and treating her like a puppet, flailing them around excitedly before she jerked them out of his grasps, angrily. He ignored this, however. " .time." He muttered before pulling something out of his coat pocket and ignoring her completely now as his eyes narrowed onto the line after line of police car descending upon the museum. His fingers began to fiddle with the object incessantly as he also began muttering to himself. "Come _ooon. Come on. Comeon." _He said repeatedly to himself almost as if forgetting anyone else was there. Arella stole a glance over at his hand, wondering what it was that had gotten him so excited. When she did, however, she wished she hadn't. She didn't know a lot about explosives, but she had watched enough action movies to recognize what he held in his hand as a detonator. She gasped, looking back towards the museum that was now surrounded by at least 6 cop cars and a swat van. She couldn't just sit by and watch him destroy her life's work. Not to mention all of the people and her friends. He said he wouldn't, that he couldn't. Not that she was ever under the illusion that this man, this animal was something that could be trusted, but even though she had seen the evidence many times before that his lust for destruction went above and beyond what she would have considered possible for a single man, she was ashamed to say that she had underestimated him. As if he would ever be content with a simple art heist. She closed her eyes for a split second, grasping for a taste of the peace she felt just a few minutes before letting out a slow sigh, opening her eyes, and lunging her body towards the detonator.


	3. Chapter 3

The Joker's reaction was almost immediate. She could tell that he had caught him somewhat off guard as he jerked the detonator away from her with a brief look of surprise on his face that quickly turned into a frown as he looked at her much like a child hiding his cookie from other children. She wasn't having any of it, however. She had committed to getting it away from him and she wasn't going to give up that easy. With a quick twist, she turned around from her spot between his knees, pulling herself up to her own and focusing all of her anger on him now. Letting out a primal growl and lunging forward with all the force she could muster, she forced him backwards with an 'oomph' and snaked her fingers around a large clump of greasy green hair as she yanked as hard as she could, using her free hand to pummel angry fists into his chest. She figured if she couldn't get the trigger away from him, she would distract him long enough to ruin his plan. Not to mention it felt absolutely freeing to let out all her frustration on the mad man as she crawled onto his stomach and continued to assail him, almost not recognizing the stream of obscenities that were flowing from her lips. She had never been in an actual fight before, having led such a sheltered life indoors, but that didn't stop her from her steadfast dedication to attend any and every women's self-defense class her gym had offered. Gotham was a dangerous place and she had to ready at all times to defend herself by any means necessary. Mentally she gave herself a pat on the back for remembering her training even though it had failed her earlier as those classes were now giving her the upper hand while she dug one of her knees into his diaphragm, giving herself more leverage. It was then that a horrible realization began to settle over her. She wasn't sure how long she had been wailing on the madman beneath her, but she slowly realized that at no time during her brief moment of heroism had he bothered to protect himself or fight back. To the contrary, in the process he had been laughing at her. Not the terrifying cackle that would have surely roused her from her faux dominate perception much sooner, but a deep, slow guttural laugh that gave her pause as it contrasted sharply with his now humorless face. Her own face dropped almost immediately as her hands halted above him. A tickle on her leg caused her head to jerk to the side as she realized that he had been idly caressing her bare thigh as she straddled him, casually reminding her of the sexual nature of her position atop him. A disgusted groan escaped her lips and she quickly placed her hands on his chest to lift herself off of him, but his hands quickly tightened on her thighs, holding her in place and pressing her pelvis closer into him in a unwelcome reminder to her of who was really in control despite her superior position. She had made a grave error in overestimating her strength and her body began to tremble as she looked down at the clown below, wondering when he would strike.

He stare at her face for a long moment his smile growing as he saw the terror settle back into her eyes the brief flame that had fueled her being slowly snuffed out and leaving her in a hauntingly dark place. He cocked his head to the side before giving a sympathetic frown.

"Tired so _soon_?" he almost looked disappointed, letting his tongue flick out to collect a growing drop of blood on his lip.

She shook her head rapidly in a desperate attempt to wordlessly beg him for forgiveness, her hands still on his chest as she continuously tried to push away. He ignored her, reaching up suddenly and wrapping his fingers around her neck, squeezing tightly as he used her as leverage to pull himself up to a sitting position.

"Stop!" She raised her hands to his, trying to pry them away and scramble backwards at the same time. He laughed, allowing her to move off of him and pulling himself to a crouched position over her as her back was pressed into the ground at an uncomfortable angle.

"Stop?" He giggled, squeezing tighter. "_Stop? _Well that wouldn't be _fair." _He continued to giggle. "Now I know what you're thinking." His grip loosened just enough to allow her to gasp in a large gulp of air as he sucked the insides of his cheeks and continued in the condescending tone that made her want to punch him in the face all over again. "But I'm not _mad. _I _like _a girl with a little _spunk._" He imitated punching gestures with his free hand before leaning closer so that his lips were practically touching her ear, his voice lowering to a growl. "Now it's _my _turn."

Her eyes widened, but before she could protest, the gloved hand that had been gripping her neck moved to clasp over her mouth as the second hand, which had been imitating playful punches just seconds before now lowered to deliver very real, very painful punches to her right kidney. She let out a muffled shriek of pain, trying to curl up in a ball but unsure of which way to turn to alleviate the pain. The hand on her mouth was also effectively holding her in place as he leaned much of his weight onto her as he continued his calculated barrage on her torso. She knew now why he had let her attack him without protest. He wanted to show her how powerful he really was, how there was nothing she could do that could possibly hurt him, and how deranged he could really get. The pain was like nothing she had ever felt, she wished, prayed for the goon earlier who had delivered what not seemed like puny punches to her gut. She'd take that any day over this. She knew he was laughing now, could faintly hear it over the pounding in her head. But all she could focus on was the cool dirt against her face that seemed to offer her a brief reprieve from the pain between each punch brought her back to the present with shocks of pain that flowed through her entire body. The scent of gasoline wafted up through her nose from the Joker's glove making her feel as if she was going to lose whatever was left in her stomach, if anything. It all seemed to be happening in slow motion and she wasn't sure if she'd make it out of this alive. He finally stopped however, standing up straight off of her, removing his hand from her mouth allowing her to finally let out a tortured cry, rolling over to her side as she wrapped her arms tightly around herself and allowed a deluge of tears to fall down her cheeks. But he hadn't had enough, he kicked her twice more in the stomach before finally stopping and looking down at her before bursting into laughter.

"You _know. _I've been _thinking._" He began conversationally as if he hadn't just delivered her the most vicious beating she had ever received. "Maybe I was a little quick to judge." He stepped away from her and turned around to pick something up behind him. "I thought you were trying to get me to _stop_" He waved the detonator in his hand at her. "But _you _just wanted a bit of the _action_."

Her eyes drifted up in pure fear as she tried to shake her head. "No." She managed to whimper.

"Well I'm nothing if not generous-ah." He leaned down, pulling her up into a sitting position again, ignoring the obvious pain it was causing her as her sobs wracked her body, making it difficult to still see the museum in the distance. He placed his arms around her as he crouched, sliding the detonator into her palm and forcing her hand to close around it by closing both of his around her own.

"You said you wouldn't destroy it!" She finally shouted at him through her sobs in a last ditch effort to stop him. With every centimeter his hand moved hers closer to the trigger despite her weak protest, she could feel herself unraveling. She couldn't be responsible for the death of her friends; not if she had any hope of making it out of this with a shred of sanity still intact.

"I'm not." He said in her ear with a satisfied hum. "You are." And with that he forced her hand over the button, pressing it. Arella could see the explosion before she heard it. It seemed to happen in slow motion, starting with the police cars at the front of the museum and then tearing throw the building. When the sound finally did come, it was deafening. She screamed, dropping the detonator and covering her ears as she began to rock back in forth in a desperate attempt to calm herself as the Joker stood behind her clapping and giggling as he jumped up and down.

"It's not real. This isn't real. It's not real." She began to murmur to herself, trying to drown out the sight, sounds and feel of the residual heat traveling back towards them.

The Joker shook his head back and forth like a rapid dog before giving an exaggerated shiver before kneeling down to her "Was it as good for you as it was for me?"

She didn't reply, not looking up, she just wanted him to go away, wanted it all to be over.

He looked over her, twirling his favorite knife in his hand as he took in the damage he had caused to the woman over the course of twenty minutes. Her hair, which had once been neat and perfectly in place hung heavily over her shoulders now in tangled curls adorned with a mixture of dirt, twigs, blood, and leaves. The dress that had ridden up to her waist again in the course of their fight was in no better shape. Her back was nearly soaked in the blood of his dead goon and a seam had popped on the side from the constant tugging it had endured today. She seemed oblivious to all this though as she cried with on her almost bare, underwear clad bottom in the dirt. Joker gave an exaggerated tilt of the head as he made a show of getting a good look at her bottom. He smirked, mentally recalling the Old Sir Mix a Lot song as he tapped the tune onto his shoulder with his knife, wondering what would be that best way to dispatch of her. He had been like a kid in a candy store since he escaped from Arkham, thinking of new and elaborate ways to dispatch of the unlucky people that had the displeasure of crossing his path. As he looked her body over, his eyes stopped on her neck noticing the early formation of bruises on the smooth brown skin of her neck. He admired that way they looked against her skin; how he could almost feel his hand there still, squeezing the life out of her. It was rare he got to see the contrast and he'd be lying if he said he didn't enjoy it. His hand unwittingly reached out again, miming the action again as he relished in the imagined feel. He gnashed his teeth at her happily before sliding the knife safely back into his coat pocket and leaning down to grab her arm again, yanking her to her feet.

She screamed in shock, suddenly attacking him again as she tried to blindly escape from his grip. She wasn't being rational right now. She could barely think, all she knew was that all she wanted to do was run. It didn't even matter where at this point. In a primal reaction, her body was trying to save itself whether her mind knew why or not. The Joker ignored her weak protests, humming to himself as he dragged her through the trees to a van waiting for them hidden by the brush. When she saw the van, she froze, recognizing it as the same van that had been sitting in the parking lot for the past few days. Her mouth dropped as she realized what this meant. This had been the plan for at least three days. They had probably watched the museum, watched her as she wandered the gardens, and she had probably interacted with one of the goons if they had come into the building to look around. The thought disgusted her and she felt violated all over again. Her eyes drifted over to the Joker who smirked at her, raising his eyebrows as if he knew what she was thinking and was proud of the ruse.

"Where are you taking me?" She asked weakly, her legs failing her as she tried to walk, forcing her to learn heavily against the Joker as they made it to the van. He seemed to get a kick out of this, however, giggling before leaning down and lifting her up so that he was cradling her body against him as if he were a true prince charming.

"Well, we can't stay _here_, doll face_._" He said as if it had been obvious the whole time, before tossing her into the open back of the van onto the floor as if she were a bag of dirty clothes.

She let out a gasping breath as all the air was forced from her as she the metal hit her back. He jumped in after her, slamming the door behind him as he crouched over her hungrily, looking her over once again before speaking again. "Let's go home." He barked, still looking down her. It took Arella a moment to realize that he wasn't speaking to her however as they car started. She glanced nervously at the lone goon in the front seat as he shifted the car into drive, and skidded away from the building but her eyes were quickly drawn back to the Joker who was staring down at her still, his tongue going back and forth across his scares. "You and I have so much more fun to have." He said lowly to her before producing a cloth from his back and pressing it against her face. She only struggled against him for a moment before passing out.

_"Grandma" Arella whispered in the pitch black darkness of the room. "Grandma, wakeup." _

_ Having lived here for years, her grandmother was a paranoid lady and had blocked nearly all of the windows in the apartment in an attempt to hide them from the rift raft outside. Arella was having none of it though. Unable to understand why her grandmother had wouldn't allow her to even look outside; she had long ago forced a hole in the corner of the plywood covering her window that faced out to the street. Sometimes after school, she would sit here for hours watching the other kids play. And often times, when she found it difficult to sleep, she would return to her perch, and stare at the glow from the strip club's tacky neon lights while she pretended she was a carefree, elegant lounge singer in Las Vegas. Wrapped in a blanket that doubled as a mink coat, she would dance to the faint music and hum softly to herself. Tonight, however, that experience had been different. As she bobbed her head to the music, watching the beautiful girls rush in and out of the club, she was lost in a daydream where she was a young girl in Paris, the daughter of the greatest Moulin Rouge dancer who was sent to all the best schools and rubbed elbows with all the best people. She had read about the club in a book that she probably shouldn't have touched, but she had always seen her neighbor, Ms. Muntz, with her head buried in it and she couldn't help but wonder what all the buzz had been about. So once, while Ms. Muntz was washing clothes, she snuck in and stole it, hiding it under her bed for days before she finally began to read it in the middle of the night. That was months ago, and since then, she had been weaving an elaborate imaginary life for herself based on the story. And as she looked out the window, she would try to pick out which girl would be her mother: The rail thin brunette wrapped in a dirty, threadbare, faux leather jacket and little else? The voluptuous blond who hadn't even bothered with a jacket that night allowing her disco ball style dress to sparkle in the night? Or the tiny Asian girl who didn't look near as old as the others, but was draped in a grey imitation fur jacket that had been matted with a mix of rain and things that Arella wouldn't know much about for years. While watching, she had heard a scream in the nearby ally. She froze for a moment before repositioning her chair so that she could see out better. Her grandmother had always warned her against being nosy but it was late, and there was no one there to chastise her. She couldn't see what was going on in the ally from the angle she was sitting, but she could hear the woman's shouts for help and see flashes of skin as she stared. A leg here, a reaching arm there. Nothing for very long but enough to know that the lady was truly in trouble and patron's to the club seemed oblivious to it. Her breath hitched in her throat before she moved the chair to block the hole like it always did and raced to her grandmother's room where she found herself now. _

_Her grandmother stirred slightly. "What do you want?" She answered gruffly, not bothering to open her eyes. "If you're waking me up and you're not dying…"_

_"There's a woman outside." She whispered, undeterred. "She needs help. You have to help her."_

_"Go back to bed, Ella." She muttered, sniffing and rolling over away from the child. "It's none of your business." _

_"I can hear her!" She gave a frustrated sigh. "She's hurt." _

_"She won't be by morning." Her grandmother muttered in a tone that signaled she was done with the conversational intrusion. _

_Arella sat on the dirty comforter for a moment, her pajama clad legs tucked under her as she thought. Her head turned back to the doorway, pigtails trailing along her shoulder as she wrestled with decisions that carried implications too large for her 9 year old mind to comprehend at the time. Finally she stood, racing back to her room and moving the chair slightly to look back out of the window. The screaming had stopped and everything seemed back to normal, but a bare arm peeking out from the edge of the ally told her that it wasn't. She gasped, wondering if the woman was still alive. It was cold out and she hated the cold even while bundled. She couldn't imagine how this woman felt. She finally set her lips into a determined frown before going to her closet and grabbing her shoes, her jacket, and her favorite blanket, pulling the former two on and carrying the latter around her. She started to the door and paused before turning around and heading back to the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of water and a bag of fruit snacks. She was well aware that it might have made more sense to grab some real food, but she wanted to hurry and they were the only portable things that they had. She made her way to the door and opened if carefully to avoid the telltale squeak, After managing to slip out, she shut it behind her, pulling out her key and locking it. She stuffed the key in her coat pocket, The fluorescent lights cast an unappealing glow on the dirty red carpet below her feet that had probably been there since the building was completed in the 1920's. The wallpaper as well seemed horribly outdated, a yellow floral print that was peeling around the original light fixtures that still lined the walls. When they installed the newer fluorescent lights, they had barely rerouted the wiring much less removed the old fixtures. She was secretly glad about that, though. It allowed her to better imagine what the building was like in its heyday, before the narrows had gone to hell. She took a deep breath before heading to the stairs. The hallway seemed foreign to her at night, a fact that scared her if she thought too hard about it. Instead, she focused on the familiar feeling of the wrought iron handrails parallel to the stairs. It took her an agonizingly long time to descend the floor flights of stairs to the first floor. She had promised herself that if she saw any of her neighbors, she would dart back home and hope they wouldn't tattle on her, but luck seemed to be on her side tonight as she made her way to the big, double, wooden doors that marked the entrance to the building. She pushed them open with a groan, peering out. The ally was almost directly across the street from her building. She could make it there and be back inside within five minute; her grandmother never even had to realize that she had been gone. The street was dark and mostly empty save for the every changing group of club patrons in front of the strip club almost directly in front of her. Tonight, the group consisted of about 4 men and 2 women who had probably been in the game longer than anyone. She glanced down at a scrap of paper blowing across the disgusting grey sidewalk near her feet, coming to rest for a moment on the windshield of an illegally parked yellow jalopy to her left before fluttering off further down the street. She pursed her lips before stepping out of the door fully. The faster she could check on the lady the better. She was already regretting this decision but she was out now. _

_One of the men standing in front of the club noticed her immediately, giving her an unreadable stare as he took a drag on the cigarette in his hand, narrowing his heavily lidded eyes at her, his dark,, shoulder length curly hair greased back in a hilariously misguided attempt to look put together. With a brown jacket thrown lazily over a white wife beater and gold chain, he looked like every other Italian goon in the neighborhood. Arella locked eyes with him for a brief moment before looking away towards the alley not 30 feet away from the group where she could see the arm of the woman still. She hesitated before beginning to walk towards her. _

_The man let out a chuckle, removing the cigarette from his mouth before giving the man standing next to him a tap, gesturing with his cigarette to the painfully out of place child walking the streets in her pajamas. "Check this out." He said in a raspy voice, placing the cigarette back between his lips. _

_The second man looked over at her as well as she focused hard on avoiding their confused stares. "What the fuck." The second man said with a laugh, finding the randomness of the situation humorous. "Kinda late, ain't it, little girl?" He called out to her. _

_Arella ignored him, but his loud talking had caught the attention of the rest of his friends who were now looking at her with equally confused looks. _

_"Aww, she's just a kid." One of the women said with a smile._

_"Well you know what I always say," One of them started with a disturbing smile. "If there's grass on the field…" He left the statement open to the obvious interpretation. _

_"Trust me, Dwayne." One of the hookers began. "There's not a single blade of grass on that field." _

_Arella started to look up, wondering what on earth they were going on about, but she resisted the urge._

_"Even better." He smiled, before calling out to her as well. "Hey little chocolate chip." He made kissy noises at her. "You like milk with your cookies?" He grabbed his crotch with a laugh, causing the other men to burst into giggles as well. _

_The hookers only gave each other annoyed looks before going back to the cigarettes they were smoking. Drunken men always thought they were so creative. _

_As Arella finally made her way closer to the woman, she could see that the lady was practically completely naked. The shirt she had been wearing had been completely shredded and her skirt was hiked up high upon her thigh, blood dripping down them as if she had once been standing. She hadn't moved, but her eyes were frantic, pleading as she watched the girl approach her. The two only stare at each other for a long time. Arella had never seen a naked woman before and she wasn't sure she wanted this to count. As sorry as she felt for the woman, the odd angles the she lay there with everything on display scared her. She let out the slow breath that she didn't realize she had been holding, suddenly realizing why it was gran never let her go out at night. _

_"Go away." Came a tight voice to break her from her stupor. Arella looked down at the woman whose eyes still seemed to beg her, she wasn't sure if it was her voice that had spoken at first until it came again with much difficulty. "Go. home." She said again, taking in a shallow breath before pushing out each word. _

_"What's she doin' with Misty?" One of the men questioned, watching._

_Arella glanced a sideways glance at the men before turning back to the woman. "Okay." She said after a moment, understanding immediately the danger she was in. Even still, she quickly pulled removed the cartoon blanket from her shoulders and laid it atop of the woman, trying her best to cover her exposed body without getting to close. _

_The nearby hookers only looked on in shock, their mouths dropped as they were unsure of what to say, cigarettes nearly forgotten in their fingers. _

_The men on the other hand broke out into raucous laughter, slapping their knees and doubling over as if they couldn't believe what they were seeing. _

_"Rainbow Brite!" One wheezed, wiping tears from his eyes. "Seriously? Oh this is too good."_

_"Misty's gonna be fine, bella."The initial sleezy guy said with a shrug. _

_"Eventually." The second one muttered as if Arella couldn't hear her from where she stood, pulling the water and fruit snacks from her pocket though beginning to feel ridiculous about it. _

_"How bout' I come give you a hand." He continued, starting to walk towards her. _

_"Leave her alone, Tony." One of the hookers grabbed his arm, stopping him. "She's so young." _

_"I know." He shoved her arm away roughly before turning back to the child. _

_Arella froze in her spot, unsure of what to do. She quickly sat the food next to the lady without looking back towards her and stood quickly, backing up and running off straight into the chest of one of the other men who had anticipated her movements. _

_"Don't go." The man placed a heavy hand on the top of her head. We're having a party in there," He turned her to face the club. "You should come hang with us. Cool kid like yourself, you'd fit right in."_

_"My grandma-" She started softly. _

_"Cool kids don't need grandma's permission. We got cake and ice cream and all the fun shit." He sneered. "You'll love it." _

_"Hey Tony." Came a voice from behind her. _

_Both she and Tony turned around to see a boy standing behind them, leaning against the wall adjacent to the alley. The boy couldn't be more than 15, she had seen kids like him in and out of the alleys all the time cohorting with men the likes of Tony. His chin length dark hair was tucked behind his ears, and even from here, Arella could tell he had the most mesmerizing blue eyes. Her grandmother told her that what they were doing was evil, and that they were going to hell for it, but she never went further to explain it. All she needed to know was that the group of boys was dangerous. Probably more so than the actual mobs in this neighborhood. He gave a passive look towards the woman who had shrink into the blanket, clinging to it for dear life as she stare at the wall in front of her blankly, Her eyes opening and closing slowly. "Looks like you guys really did a number on her tonight." He said simply. _

_"What do you care, Walt? You want some of that too? If you go gentle on her you might be able to squeeze out another round." _

_The kid chuckled. "Come on, Tony. Look at this face. Do I look like I've ever had to force any woman…or girl to do anything with me?" _

_"Obviously not, or else you'd know that you don't do it because you have to. You do it because there's nothing like it." He licked his lips looking down at Arella running his hand along her pigtails. _

_She gave an involuntary shudder, closing her eyes in fear. It was suddenly so much colder than she realized and she wished she had taken the time to put on more clothes. _

_"Why don't you let the kid go, Tony. I don't think she wants your cake."_

_"Well what if I want hers?" _

_"I don't have any." Arella muttered without thinking as she stare at the ground. Her grandmother was always harping on her for her smart mouth and Tony didn't seem to appreciate it either, causing her to cringe as he gave a warning tug on her pigtail._

_Walt looked down at her before giving a genuine laugh. "Well there you have it." He replied. "Go inside and drink it off. You've had enough fun tonight."_

_"Says who?" _

_"Says the boss." He said simply. "Have you met his daughter by the way? Just turned ten. Adorable." _

_Tony frowned before stepping away. "The boss won't be around forever to back your play." _

_"He'll be happy to know that." _

_Tony hesitated, looking completely shaken for a moment before turning to his friends. "Let's go party boys." He said simply, disappearing into the club with his friends following. _

_Arella watched him go for a moment before turning to rush back to the building. _

_"Hey Kid." Walt called after her. _

_She paused, looking at her door only 20 feet away before letting out an annoyed sigh, turning around to face him. She gave him a look trying to let him know how tired she was. _

_"Come here." He ordered. _

_A glance to the door behind her told her relatively quickly that she wouldn't make it if she ran. The boy was nearly twice her height and was all legs. She rolled her eyes before taking a few steps closer to him, stopping out of arms reach, pursing her lips and looking up at him with crossed arms._

_He kneeled down in front of her as he studied her face, giving her a once over."You okay?" he questioned gently, resting his hands on his knees. _

_She nodded. _

_"What's your name?" _

_"Arella." She replied barely above a whisper. _

_"That's pretty. What are you doing out here? It's dangerous for little girls like you." _

_"I heard screaming." Her eyes drifted to the woman on the ground._

_He followed her gaze, looking at the woman for a moment. "Yea. That's your blanket I'm assuming?" _

_"Yea." She gave a curt nod as she star at the Rainbow Brite blanket that was beginning to soak up a fair amount of blood. Arella kept trying to tell herself that it was just dirt, however. But the tears the were beginning to well in her eyes were telling her otherwise. _

_"You might have to chalk that one up to a loss." He said with a chuckle, reaching out and placing his hands on her shoulders, gently turning her away from the woman to face her apartment building. "Rainbow Brite too. Next time you want to save someone, use the crappy blanket." He led her back to the doors even as she attempted to turn back around to look at the woman. "Don't worry about Misty, she'll be fine."_

_"Are you going to help her?" She asked accusingly._

_He hesitated before smiling. "Yea. Of course. But first, let's get you back home." He pushed open the heavy wooden door for her. _

_ She gave him a glare before walking through the open door, watching him follow behind her. She headed to the steps, looking down at the carpet as she took four slow ones, thinking to herself. Finally, she let out a heavy sigh, turning around on the steps and resting her hand on the banister as she watched him head to the stairs as well, taking the surroundings as he did. He stopped at the bottom of the stairs, giving her an inquisitive gaze as he realized that she hadn't moved. "What?" _

_ "I'm not stupid, you know." She crossed her arms, feeling embolden by the fact that she was now taller than him on her fourth step, forcing him to look up at her. _

_ "Yea, okay." He said confused, unsure of where she was going with it._

_ "And I can walk up to my apartment by myself. Don't want strange boys knowing where I live, you know." Her voice trailed away slightly. _

_ He hesitated before stepping backwards and smiling. "Good. But I want you to run to your apartment and don't stop to talk to anyone. And don't ever let me catch you outside at this time of night again, got it?" _

_ She rolled her eyes, turning and starting up the stairs. "Go help, Misty." She said with a wave of the hand, disappearing around the landing before breaking into a run. _


	4. Chapter 4

****disclaimers!: I do not own any characters from the Batman franchise, only the one's I've created.**! **

When Arella awoke again, she did so with a soft, disoriented groan as she tried to wipe the unwanted memory from her mind. It was one that she had spent years trying to forget even as it had served as the catalyst to her desire to get out of the narrows as soon as she could. Though she had been young at the time, she was perfectly aware of what could have happened to her that day and as she had matured, the idea scared her more and more. Sympathy had forced her from her cozy bedroom to try and help that night, but it was the fear in the woman's eyes that had convinced her to never do so again; When she had looked into them, it was immediately clear that the stranger wasn't afraid for herself, but for the stupid young girl standing over her with the Rainbow Bright blanket that she thought would fix everything. Had she not been so lucky, it was very likely that Arella would have never returned back to the safety of her bed and it was a second chance that she never took lightly. She never told her grandmother of the incident and found that it was far simpler to impose even stricter rules on herself than to face what might be waiting for her outside the doors. From that day forward, she quickly transformed herself into one of the most hyper vigilant children in the neighborhood, sprinting from her door to the school bus only when it pulled to the front and sprinting back when it dropped her off, Clinging to her grandmother's skirts for dear life when they would have to go to the nearby store for food, and completely ignoring the other children when they tried to interact with her. And when nightfall came, she would lock all three bolts on the front door before retreating to her room, drawing the blinds and placing her headphones in her ears until she awoke in the morning. Her daydreams disappeared into plans, and her plans became reality when she was finally able to get out. And even then, it had taken years of psychiatric treatment for her to feel a semblance of normal again.

It didn't take long for the memory to fade, but once it had, Arella found herself wishing it hadn't as it was quickly replaced by the events only an hour early. A loud whimper left her lips as she tried to sit up, only to realize that she was in fact upside down and the floor that she thought she was grabbing was actually the jacket covering a sturdy back that flexed as she was shifted slightly on a shoulder. A low chuckle caused his shoulders to shift uncomfortably, digging into her stomach to remind her instantly of the extreme agony that she was in. She hissed in pain, digging her nails into the jacket in a futile attempt to try and minimize that impact of her sore body against his. Her body felt lethargic, as much as she considered fighting back at the moment so that he would release her, forever if possible, she could barely move her legs that were draped over his chest. So instead she laid there, tears flowing out of her eyes as she tried her best to hold in the nausea that she was feeling and conserve energy. She would need it if she were to ever get a chance to run. There was a strong chance that she would die in the process of trying but, at this point, it was not the worst thing she could think of happening. The Joker had brought her back for a reason, and a toxic mixture of fear and denial kept her from trying to figure out what that reason could be.

The Joker began to hum happily to himself as they walked through what seemed to be a dilapidated loading dock. A mixture of old vans and trucks lined the dim walls as groups of masked men worked on unloading them in complete silence. A couple of bolder ones snuck hungry glances up at her as the Joker passed them, but most kept their heads down, avoiding the psychopath's gaze and, hopefully, his wrath. With each man that she passed, she began to feel a nervousness pass over her as she became more and more aware of the way her backside was hoisted into the air, next to the Joker's face. As she grew from a child to a teenager, she had always had skeevy guys staring at her backside, a curse she had dealt with first, with baggy clothes, and then with ignorance by pretending that she hadn't noticed. Luckily, guys in the nicer areas of Gotham were usually a little stealthier about it, so it had gotten to a point when she didn't even have to pretend anymore either. But now, in such a compromised position, it was all she could focus on next to the pain. It was no wonder she had dreamed about that woman while she had been passed out. In a short while, she would be worse off than she ever was and there would be no one here to save her.

They climbed a short flight of stairs, before heading to a freight elevator only twenty feet away. The area was still nearly pitch back and she wondered how the Joker could see, much less navigate the labyrinth of hallways. She could hear boilers clanking in the distance and men laughing in unseen rooms before the elevator door was slammed shut and the Joker mashed the button 3. The silence was quickly becoming too much to bear. Part of her wanted to know what he was doing, but another part was terrified to find out. In any case, she wished that he would just talk.

"Where are you taking me?" She finally asked in a weak voice. Each word seemed to take a little out of her as her throat still tried to compensate for the trauma it had been put through more than twice that day, but she continued, hoping she could say something, anything, that would get through to him. He continued to hum however, as if he hadn't heard a word she had said, you she tried to speak a little louder.

"I'll do what you want. I swear I will, as long as you promise to let me go afterwards. I won't even fight, and I won't tell anyone. I'll just…go home. And…no one has to know." She rambled, unsure of what she was even saying at this point. "Not even the police. I won't tell a soul where you are." She said with a pained sigh, closing her eyes as she tried to block out the massive headache she was beginning to feel.

His humming stopped in unison with the elevator as he patiently waited for the doors to open, still ignoring her. A small part of her thought that maybe he simply didn't hear her again and that she should simply continue. But a low, lyrical voice told her otherwise.

"You're _ly-iiing."_ He sang before stepping out of the elevator, heading down another dark hallway. She could tell that he hadn't considered her offer for even a second, and that he was simply showing her with those two words that he was neither stupid, nor moved by pity.

A weak sigh left her lips as she considered protesting again before the dim light of an exit sign caught her eye from a corner no more than ten feet away. She froze, staring at it for a moment as she considered her options. There was no indication of where she was being taken at the moment, but she was sure that whenever they arrived, she'd be stuck. This was likely the only chance to escape, but it was little more than a wish. Her rational mind was screaming at her that she'd never make it and would probably die in the process, but she ignored it. She'd never forgive herself if she didn't at least try. A glance up at the mess of green hair above her, and her mouth set in a determined front, hesitating for only a moment before quickly contracting her legs and awkwardly digging her feet into the Joker's chest as she simultaneously lifted herself to an upright position.

He gave an annoyed growl, reaching up to force her back upside down but stopping as she dug her nails into the sides of his neck, feeling a disgusting mixture of skin and grease paint accumulating as she dragged, trying to squirm her way out of his grip. Even still, there was barely a flinch, as if he didn't feel his skin being torn away from his neck. He only sneered, flashing his yellow teeth at her.

"Oh you wanna _play." _He growled before simply letting her go with a shove, forcing her body to the concrete floor with such force that her breath immediately left her. "I _like _to play."

Arella's mouth opened in a silent scream as she desperately tried to breathe through lungs that had seemingly forgotten how. The man over her seemed even taller from her disadvantaged position, a fact that didn't escape him as he loomed, pulling out a knife and reaching down towards her head.

She quickly dodged his hand and scrambled to her knees as her breath finally returned in the form of a loud sob. Behind her, the Joker giggled as he began stalking her slowly, his footfalls echoed and mixed with her sobs to form a terrifying cacophony of sounds through the empty corridor; one that almost caused her to consider simply surrendering and hoping for less pain than she was certain to receive if he caught her. But the door was only a few steps away, and if there was still that slim chance of her surviving if she could get far enough away from him to be able to climb to her feet and run. All she needed was a split second and a clear escape path and she was sure she would make it. If two years of college soccer had shown her nothing else, it had shown her that she was fast. All of her hopes were dashed however as a knife flew mere inches away from her head as she reached towards the door knob causing her to scream and scramble backwards; right at the waiting feet of the Joker.

"Hm."He let out a disappointed grunt, studying the knife in the wall for a moment before casually stepping over her hyperventilating body towards the door and yanking it out. With a smooth turn, he kneeled in front of her and gave a sadistic grin.

"Maybe next time, _hmm_?" He waved the knife before standing and digging a hand through her hair, close to the scalp. With a sharp yank, she squealed, and just like that, he smiled to himself, his bad mood partially alleviated. It was surprising how much better he felt when he got to hear a person scream a scream that he had been the cause of. Instead of releasing her, however, he continued to walk, dragging her behind him along the concrete floor.

Arella hadn't stopped screaming as she struggled to climb to her knees so that she could at least keep up with him instead of being pulled along like a rag doll across the concrete floor the was littered with rough particles. Her legs were burning as she kicked, and she could feel strands of hair being removed from her scalp as they advanced. At the very least, she hoped they were close. God she hoped they were.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, the Joker pulled her through a doorway into another pitch black room and shoved her onto the floor in front of him. As she looked up, she could briefly make out his outline in the dimly lit entryway before the door was shut behind him, a telltale, metallic, clanking sound telling her that wherever they were, she wasn't leaving until he was ready. She could feel her breathing begin to quicken as she tried to force her eyes to adjust to the darkness but there seemed to be nothing in the room that she could lock on.

"What's the matter, sweet cheeks, scared of the _dark?_" Came that annoying voice again.

She didn't reply, trying to control her breathing as she used the heels of her feet to back away from the voice, into what, she didn't care, but she wanted to get as far away as possible. There was another long pause before a light flicked on.

"Tada!" The Joker waved his arms dramatically to showcase the room. She looked around trying to make sense of the space she was in. It looked like an old fashioned hospital room with dirty blue tiles and smooth white ceramic floors that had been tellingly stained brown in certain places-especially around a large drain in the center of the room. Along one wall steel, waist high cabinets lined up to hide god knows what behind them and large hooks hang from the ceiling. Aside from that, the room was empty, sterile, and it was that fact that scared her more than anything else.

He looked at her impatiently. "_Well_?"

She knew that he wanted her to say something. To comment on the room that he had just brought her into but she couldn't. Couldn't focus on making up a lie, couldn't focus on trying to appease him. Could barely focus on breathing as she pictured all the ways he might think of killing her in this room that had clearly seen its share of previous inhabitants.

"Oh you're _speechless."_ He said finally with a knowing smile before walking over to the steel counters with his back to her, beginning to remove his jacket.

Her eyes flicked over to the large chain lock on the door and she quickly realized that there was no way she was breaking through it. Not in the split second she had to accomplish it at least. Maybe if she could knock him unconscious, kill him if she had too, then she could take her time, but a quick scan around the rest of the room and it was obvious that it was left intentionally sparse for that very reason. There was nothing that she could grab onto to help herself. Nothing to crawl under. Nothing to climb atop of. She had no escape here just as she expected. And as the Joker finally turned around holding a generous length of rope, she let out a defeated sigh, allowing her body to drop to the cold floor, watching as he closed the distance between them. She couldn't keep fighting, not physically at least. There wasn't a single inch of her body that wasn't bruised, sore, or cut and she was spent.

"Please don't." She finally said, barely above a whisper as she closed her eyes, trying to block him out. She had tried fighting, and she had tried persuasion. Now, the only thing she could turn to was begging. It wouldn't work, and she knew it, but she couldn't accept the fact that she was giving up. If not for herself, then because she hated him.

"Please don't what-ah?" He asked her innocently with a cock of the head. "Don't…_hurt _you? Don't…" That reptilian tongue flicked out to lick his lips as he feigned thoughtfulness. "_Kill you?" _

With that he dropped to his knees on top of her, one knee on either side of her chest as he sat on her stomach, forcing her eyes open wide as her fear was renewed. Her arms immediately reached up to push him away but he anticipated her movement easily, catching her by the wrists and forcing them above her head, holding them in place with one hand.

"Don't…._stop_?" He continued barring his teeth at her as his free hand reached up, caressing her arm from shoulder to wrist with the rope in his hand still.

She looked up at him with wide eyes, shaking her head. "I can't breathe." She said quickly. "Please get off, I can't breathe. I-." Her voice cut off as she felt the rough rope glide against her wrist, making a quick loop. By the time she could scream and try to pull away, there was already a tight knot looped around her wrists that was only getting tighter as he yanked. Another scream left her lips as she gave a frustrated kick of her legs. She couldn't move him, she couldn't move her arms, and there was no way she could free herself.

The Joker grinned at her helplessness, busying himself with looping the rope a few more times before leaning back and looking her over again. The bruises on her neck were beginning to darken even more and he couldn't help but get excited, reaching out tracing the outline causing her to scream at him again.

He feigned surprise, giving an exaggerated jump and holding his hands up with a smile, as if to pretend that he hadn't done a thing. The playful innocence enraged her as she growled again, spitting in his face.

His lips immediately turned downwards into a frown, wiping the spit away as he reached down again, wrapping his hand around her throat and squeezing just enough to make her uncomfortable. To remind her that it would only take a flick of the wrist to squeeze the life out of her. "You _know. _I can't help but notice that you're a little. high. strung. That won't make life easy for you with a guy like me." His face leaned closer to hers, glaring at her.

"Then kill me." She dared him.

He paused before laughing. "Where's the fun in that?" He shook his head before standing off of her. Grabbing her tied wrists and yanking her from the floor, grabbing one of the hooks from the ceiling with this free hand and attaching the rope to it so that she was forced to hang by her wrists, her toes barely touching the floor.

"Get it?" He laughed, giving her a few good spins as he ignored her kicking as she tried to stop the motion. He pulled his knife out again, frowning slightly as he caught her hips, stopping her body mid rotation so that she could feel the cold knife pressed carelessly against her side.

"I sure hope you have a better sense of humor at some point." He said casually, turning her around once more and grabbing the zipper, pulling it down, hardly noticing the struggling she had begun doing as he continued his one sided conversation.

"It's a shame about the dress. I really _did _like it. You look..._stunning_ in purple. Almost as good as myself." He said with a laugh before leaning over her shoulder.

"Now, if you keep squirming, you're gonna cut yourself." He said as if he were talking to a child, shrugging with the large knife before sliding it into the end of the zipper and beginning to cut the rest of her dress off of her. He swiftly followed with her underclothes until she stood naked in front of him, a fact that he seemed to ignore as he let the clothes sit in a pile at her feet turning to walk to a wall behind her.

She began to cry, wishing that she could curl up into the ball, but the best she could do was stand as still as possible. Hoping that whatever was about to happen was going to be quick. It came as an extreme shock when she suddenly felt a hard stream of water hit her back, forcing a short scream from her lips. It wasn't until the water had gone all the way down her body then back up towards her hair that she realized she was receiving a shower

"What the fuck." She muttered quietly to herself, hoping he would be content with simply spraying her down and wouldn't try to lather her up. Not that she had seen soap in the room. It unnerved her a little to realize that the same hose he was spraying her with had probably been used to clean an unimaginable amount of blood from the walls and floor. Glancing down at the floor, she began to get a feel for how bad she probably looked. The originally purple dress was covered in deep red splotches and had been shredded. The water that was running off of her body was also tinted red and she couldn't help but wonder how much of it was her own blood. She hadn't been able to see herself in the mirror and she couldn't help but wonder how bad it was that even the Joker couldn't stand to be near her without a shower. It was humiliating, standing there naked and so vulnerable. She knew that he could have whatever he wanted right now and there would be nobody to help her. He was probably getting himself off right now as he watched the water flow over her and she couldn't stop him. Probably wouldn't stop him at this point. He was dragging her torture out for fun. Purposefully keeping her in the dark so that she would never be able to prepare for his next move and would therefore always be expecting the worse. And her mind seemed to be doing a fabulous job of tearing itself apart at the moment as a result of the impressive method. She would have felt more secure if she was positive that this was the situation. But the ingenious part of this special brand of torture was that in a large part of her mind, he really was just volatile, and would stab her at any moment. Finally the shower turned off and she let out a sigh of relief that hitched in her throat when she felt fingers in her hair. She could tell that they were still gloved, which was strange, but how normal did she expect the Joker to be.

"What are you doing?" She questioned in an exhausted tone as her body stood stiffly in front of him.

He stopped, placing a hand on her shoulder and spinning her back around to face him. "You aren't the brightest crayon in the box, are you?" He squinted at her, sucking on his cheeks.

"Why are you doing this?" She corrected.

"You're not helping your case, cupcake." He said, spinning her back around and continuing to wash her hair. It took another 5 minutes before the Joker finally finished bathing her. After placing the hose back along the wall, he stepped in front of her without a word and reached his knife to the hook, slicing the rope easily. Instead of dropping the inch or two to her feet, Arella simply crumbled on the wet ground, shutting her eyes as she sighed, wishing she had the strength to move herself.

"Well you look _tired." _He cocked his head to the side, sliding the knife back where it belonged.

She didn't reply, lowering her head so that her hair was hiding her face from the madman. She _was_ tired. Exhausted really, and all she wanted was to pass out on the floor. She barely flinched as he grabbed her by the arm, yanking her up again and pulling her to the door. Instinctively, she tried to cover her body, not enjoying the idea of leaving the enclosed area without anything to cover her. Her eyes cast him a sideways glance, trying to gauge his state of mind, but his expression was blank, ignoring her as he led her back to the elevator and heading up another floor, before heading down another maze of hallways, pulling her towards a door guarded by two goons.

She looked up as they stopped, gasping and trying to cover herself again which was a difficult feat as the Joker held one of her arms tightly. One of the men was staring at her almost unabashedly, his mouth dropped slightly. It was like he had forgotten that the Joker was standing there, glaring at him. The second one looked away from all of them, not wanting to be accidentally accused of looking in the wrong direction.

"See something you like?" The Joker sneered at the first goon, his face uncomfortably close. He finally seemed to come to his senses, jumping slightly and looking away. "No boss." He muttered.

"_No_?" He laughed. "How could you _not._" He egged the man on, pushing Arella forward with a slight shove so that she almost ran into the goon, and would have had she not stopped herself short, hunching over to try and make herself look smaller. The Joker seemed to know that she wouldn't try to run, not in her exposed state and he barely cast a side glance at her as his black eyes bore down on the man in front of him.

The man looked confused, looking to his colleague for help, but when nothing came, he shrugged. "S'nice." He muttered, unsure of what would be the right response in the situation.

The joker only laughed before whipping out a knife and placing it roughly against the man's cheek, pressing the tip underneath the man's eye. "It's not nice to covet someone else's things." He said in a low growl.

"Of course boss. I won't boss. Won't happen again" The man said shakily with a swallow. Arella avoided looking up, not wanting to see any more blood before the day was over. She didn't appreciate being referred to as a thing, but she was quickly learning not to talk back much and she too tired to argue.

The Joker glared at him for a moment relishing in the image of shoving the knife in the man's eye and watching him squirm. It'd be easy and good fun, but he had already killed three men today and if he wasn't careful, he wouldn't have enough to handle their next job. Though he did love recruiting. With a final he growl he pulled the knife away, cutting a deep gash in the man's cheek instead, sending him screaming to the floor. He smiled at the writhing man, satiated for the moment though he made a note to kill him as soon as he could find a replacement. He sucked on his scars loudly, giving his neck a good crack and reaching over to Arella, yanking her close again before turning to the second man who was still steadily attempting to focus on something unknown in the distance. It was obvious that this man had been here a little longer than the others, having learned how to handle being around the crazed man.

"No one in, no one out. Ya got that?" The Joker waited for the man to give a slight, understanding nod. "And if she tries to get out, shoot her."

The man's eyes widened only slightly as he took in the words. He knew that if the situation ever came down to it and he had to shoot the girl, the joker would kill him. Hopefully it would never come to that. He opened the door behind him, stepping aside so that the Joker could shove the naked girl onto the floor, slamming the door without a word and walking off.

Inside the room, Arella sat on the concrete floor quickly taking in her surroundings aided by a dim light overhead. The room was small, not much larger than a prison cell and was filled only with a small, dingy mattress, a blanket carelessly strewn across it, and a metal chair against the wall. She quickly moved towards the blanket, wrapping it around her still wet, cold body for some semblance of comfort as shaky tears begin dropping from her eyes now that she was finally alone. She was beyond angry at this point. Angry that she had lost control over her life, that she had lost it to the Joker no less, and that now she was stuck here with no escape. She wanted to kill him, to wipe that smug smile off his face for even thinking her had the right to do whatever he wanted with her. But she couldn't. Right now she could do nothing but seethe. A frustrated growl erupted from her lips as she began to kick the mattress, wanting to break something, just to let some of the anger out. When this didn't work, she finally screamed, standing and going over to the chair, lifting it and slamming it to the ground a few times as she tried to let out all the aggression that had been building up over the past couple of hours. The action hurt as the reverberations traveled up her arm, but she didn't care, at least she was causing her own pain now, and as much as the sound was hurting her ears, she knew it would annoy the man standing guard outside her door at the moment if her screams hadn't. Finally, after a few good bangs, she threw the chair at the door before crumpling to the floor again as she began to sob, shaking. After releasing so much aggression, she found that she was only left with depression. Slowly, she reached for the blanket that had fallen off in her fit of rage and wrapped it back around herself, curling up into a ball on the mattress and crying herself to sleep.

When Arella awoke, it was her mind that stirred before her eyes opened. Instantly she felt all of the pain from the day before hit her conscious mind and all she wanted to do was roll over and die. Her breathing shallowed as any attempt to breathe in deeper that a wheeze added more pressure to her already sensitive back and abdomen. Her legs were stiff, and she could feel the sensation of painful pinpricks moving up and down them as they seemed to try desperately to wake up. She squinted her eyes even tighter and wrapped her arms around her bare waist as she tried to go back to sleep. An involuntary chill reminded her of how chilly she was and she blindly reached for the blanket that had probably fallen off in her sleep. After a couple of failed attempts, the sound of snickering forced her eyes open wide in surprise. She looked up to see the Joker crouched over her with a camera, seemingly filming her naked body. She let out the beginnings of a scream that was quickly chocked off by her massively sore throat as she descended into a coughing fit instead. Quickly sitting up, she pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around herself as she scanned the cell for her blanket which was located clear across the room. She flashed a glare at the Joker who was still holding the camera in front of him, fully cackling now as he stood. His makeup was fresh, so she assumed that it was morning though there was no indication from inside the windowless room. Even still, she was exhausted, as if she hadn't slept at all. She wondered how long he had been filming her, and what was on the camera. Instinctively, she clinched her legs together tightly, feeling for any pain that would tell her about anything more that had happened while she had been out. Thankfully, aside from the pain she expected, everything felt normal.

His laughing finally quieted down as he sat in the chair, peeking up at her from over the camera. "You moaned in your sleep…all _night._" He said with a smirk. "Were you dreaming of _me?_"

Her eyes widened in disbelief. "You were in here all night?" Her voice croaked.

He ignored her comment, continuing. "So tell me. Was I _good?_"

Her mouth snapped shut. The last thing she wanted to do was continue this conversation. "I wasn't dreaming about you." She said through clinched teeth.

"No. Then who _were_ you dreaming about? Hmm? _Shawn?_" He said, finally closing the camera to gauge her reaction with a smile.

She stare at him blankly, completely confused and taken aback. "W…wh…" She sputtered.

He chuckled, lifting a book from his lap that she instantly recognized and opening to a bookmarked page, clearing as throat and placing a lazy ankle over his knee as he began to read in one of the worst imitations of her voice she had ever heard.

"…Lisa keeps telling me that I should make it official with Shawn, but as much fun as he is in bed, I don't think I can force myself to-"

"Stop!" She yelled at him angrily despite her sore throat, a mistake that she paid for instantly as the pain caused her eyes to water. "Where did you get that?"

"Right where you left it. On your nightstand. Next to your _really _comfortable bed." He arched his back as if remembering it though keeping a close eye on her face as it fell.

If she didn't feel violated enough yesterday, or from sitting here completely nude in front of the Joker, the thought that he had been at her apartment, in her bedroom, her bed, almost destroyed her. She thought of all the things that he probably ruined while her was there. Her paintings, her pictures, her writings. Stuff that she would never be able to get back. Not that it mattered in her current predicament. She was never going back home anyway, but this made it feel all the more real. She broke down in tears, wishing she could have the blanket back from across the room but not daring to cross the room in front of the Joker.

"A_rella_." He tested the name written on the cover out on his tongue, ignoring her tears as if bored. "I don't like it." He finally said with a frown to himself, thinking. "I'm going to call you Ella. Rolls off the tongue better, you understand, don't you?" he sucked his cheeks, resting a hand on his knee.

She cringed at the familiarity, hating the sound of her name on his lips. He studied her reaction, revealed in it before smiling.

"Ella it is, then." He gave a sick grin.

"What do you want with me?" She finally managed to choke out.

"_Finally_." He gave an excited grin, jumping out of the chair excitedly and flopping down on the mattress next to her and splaying his long legs out in front of him as if they were old friends. "Took you long enough, _Ella._"

Her arms only tightened around herself, inching closer to the wall in an effort to get away from him, casting her eyes down to her knees.

"Well, I'll _happily _tell you." He stare at her for a long moment, making her extremely uneasy before continuing. "If you ask me, _nicely." _

She looked up at him angrily, not believing what she was hearing. "Are you fucking-"

"Ah-ta-ta." He said, reaching out and wrapping his hand around her chin as a warning, lowering his voice. "You're not off to a good start."

She yanked her face away with a growl, her jaw setting in a determined frown not wanting to give him that pleasure.

He gave another one of his sickening grins. "Try _again_." He ordered condescendingly.

With a glance towards the wall next to her as she thought, she quickly decided to play his game, at least for now. She needed to know, no matter how horrible it was. If nothing else than for her own piece of mind. She sighed, trying to look as sincere as possible before looking up.

"Please tell me." She asked softly.

"Mmm. I like it when you beg." He replied before continuing. "Well, as much as I enjoyed my-ah- _vacation_ in Arkham, at a certain point, you just gotta go. Back. To work. I mean, look what happened to the city without me!" He laughed, shaking his hands in the air. "This…_fake _sense of order, and safety. People walking the streets like all is right with the world. Criminals….running scared with their tails between their legs and the bat._man." _His smile faded as he sucked on his cheeks, looking straight ahead as if he was talking to himself. "Oh yes. Where. Is. The batman?"

She looked at him oddly, wondering what on earth he was going on about. "Probably on the run, seeing as how he killed Harvey Dent." She muttered, wondering how he hadn't heard about that in Arkham.

"Ha!" He said with a loud laugh. "Does everyone really believe that?" "Ho! I gotta admit, when I do a job, I do it _well."_ He slapped his knee.

"Yea, work." She replied with a scoff, already feeling like this conversation was completely pointless.

His laughter ceased immediately as he glared at her. "It's not polite to interrupt."

"Oh yea, because you know _so_ much about being polite." She sneered.

Without warning, he reached out, grabbing the back of her neck as slamming her head against the wall next to her. Not hard enough to knock her out, but enough so that she screamed out, immediately raising her hand to the impacted area above her head to feel warm liquid begin to seep onto her fingers. She looked at her fingers which were now covered in blood before looking at him in shock, feeling immediately woozy.

He only held his hands up, shrugging defensively as he sucked his cheeks, his expression back to neutral.

"You're crazy." She breathed out in disbelief.

"And you don't learn." He growled, reaching out to grab her neck again causing her to immediately come to her senses.

"I'm sorry." She said quickly, leaning away from him before he could grip her.

He paused, considering her apology for a moment. "May I continue?" He questioned, finally, setting his hands back down upon his thighs, though still mildly annoyed.

"Yes, Please." She muttered, burying her hand in her head again and applying pressure to the wound. At this rate she'd probably die of infection before the Joker has a chance to kill her.

He finally turned away, casting her a couple of sideways glances before continuing. "What Gotham _needs_ is chaos. It _thrives _on it. And I plan on reminding them….starting with you." He tapped her nose playfully.

She didn't reply, unsure of what to say.

"You see," He continued, moving closer to her as his face turned serious again, ignoring her attempt to pull away even further despite the wall next to her. "The people of Gotham like to pretend that they're _good_ people. But there really is no such thing. People only care about number one. And they will do or think whatever it takes to survive when they have to. It's why they were so keen to believe that batman had gone rogue, because weak minds can't handle the alternative." He licked his lips, still gesturing wildly as he spoke, his face leaning closer to hers. "_I _like to show them that…._any_one is corruptible. Even _you_. Now, you are not _near _as exciting as the batman or Harvey." He gave a dismissive wave sitting back against the wall. "But you are one of them. You're _normal_. And when they see how far you fall, Gothamites won't be able to help but question _everything_." An exaggerated shiver ran through his body before he grinned. "I get excited just thinking about it."

"You want to corrupt me?" She looked confused.

"Oh I'm going to." He said with a lazy smile.

"Then why are you telling me this? Isn't that villain 101?" She let slip, smartly, before quickly moving away, nervous about his reaction to her sass. To her surprise he chuckled.

"Because it'll be that much more fun watching you try." His hand reached up, caressing her arm gently as he leaned into her ear causing her to shudder. By the time I'm done with you, you won't want to leave here alive."

The urge to vomit briefly swept over her though he pulled away before she make a move a too. An uncomfortable silence took over the room for a moment as he looked her over, still caressing her arm. Arella lowered her hand from her head, using it to cover her body again as she tried to make sure he couldn't look at anything she didn't want him to.

"Size 8?" He questioned finally with an inquisitive tilt of the head.

She glanced up after a moment, pursing her lips. "6." She corrected softly.

"Mmm." He gave a content hum before finally pulling away quickly, jumping off of the floor. "Maybe if you're _good." _He gave a sadistic smile.

She shot him a glare while his back was turned but was quick to wipe it from her face before he could see. She still had a strong desire to kill him, but she had to be smarter about it next time. Head on, he would win every time. So for now, she would play his games until she could figure out a better option. He took a few steps towards the door before turning and looking at her as if she was stupid.

"Well are you _coming?_" he questioned annoyed.

She hesitated, starting to move before stopping, not able to figure out how to move without exposing herself. Her gaze drifted to the blanket across the room and she considered going to grabbing it, but she wasn't sure if he was planning on forcing her to walk around naked again. She had a feeling that he enjoyed parading her around in front of his men as if cementing his status as alpha male in the building. She wasn't sure why the men took it. Probably fear, just like her.

He leaned against the wall with an amused smile, staring at her as he crossed his arms and legs. Her eyes darted from the blanket to him as if searching for approval, but no signal ever came.

"Tick Tock." He urged. There was honestly not much that had to be done that day, but he was impatient and wanted to see what she'd do.

Her mouth set in a frown before she took a deep breath, covering her chest with one arm and crawling over to the blanket shakily, grabbing it, and quickly wrapping it around her. As she moved, she began to realize how much her abdomen actually hurt. If she moved too quickly, it became hard to breath. The blanket brought her a small comfort though as she sat there, recovering from the extreme effort it took to accomplish even that small feat. She whimpered slightly, sitting back with her legs tucked under her, trying to figure out how she would stand.

"You know, I'd be _happy _to carry you. But I can get a little grabby." He smirked, making a squeezing gesture with his hands.

She ignored him with a scowl, reaching for the chair and pulling herself up slowly to a stand, holding the blanket close to herself under her arms. The Joker barely waited for her to adjust to the new position before starting off at a quick pace. An annoyed huff left her mouth as she began to follow, glancing at the goon who was still standing near the door actively avoiding her gaze as she tried her best to keep up. She was surprised the he never once looked back at her as he led her through the hallways. Then again, he was probably not the least bit worried about her running away, not in her state at least.

He led her to a door, grabbing her arm and swinging it open as he dragged her behind him. It was a room strangely reminiscent of the shower room they had been in the night before. But this one had a mettle table in in the middle and a bunch more tools.

"Doc!" He shouted impatiently, barely bothering to look around the room, for if he had, he'd have noticed that small man sitting in the corner, looking through a medical journal.

"Yes boss." He jumped up, his eyes instantly glancing over to where she stood before jerking his eyes back to the Joker.

In reply, the Joker shoved her forward towards him. "'Patch her up would ya?" He said, bored. "It's no fun playing with broken toys." He frowned at her.

Arella looked at him, considering making a smart comment before deciding against it. Being in the medical room, he'd probably think nothing of beating her within an inch of her life before leaving her to be patched up. Instead she looked away, hoping he would hurry up and leave.

The doctor nodded, gesturing her to the table in front of him.

She didn't hesitate to climb up, clutching the blanket against her chest and shivering as the cold metal pressed against her back. Even still, the coolness felt welcome against her skin as the warm blanket covered her. A soft, unnoticed sigh left her lips as she closed her eyes, ignoring the two men in the room and about to lull herself into a relaxed state before she felt the blanket start to slide off of her. Her eyes popped open as she panicked, clutching the edge of the blanket against herself. She had found herself naked in front of more men in the past day than she had in the past year and it was beginning to drive her crazy. Her gaze darted over to the joker in a desperate plea for help, immediately feeling sick that she was dependent on him at the moment. But he only grinned before ducking out of the room. Her face dropped as she turned back to the doctor who also seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Don't." She said finally, still clutching the blanket.

"If you plan on getting fixed up, it's going to have to come off." He muttered, yanking the blanket away from her before she could protest.

She growled angrily, kicking. "If you touch me I'll kill you!" She yelled at him. It was an idle threat, sure, but she had to admit that knowing the Joker had no plans to kill her right away made her feel a little more embolden. At least with the men.

He only snorted. "Sure you will." He replied, looking over her passively. Arella kept her eyes on him, waiting for any wrong move. But he ignored hear death stare, setting about treating her head wound, neck wound, bruises, and raw skin on her wrists and legs from bring hung from the hook and dragged across the floor respectively. About halfway through, Arella decided that the man wasn't a threat, even though she still wasn't happy with having to lie there mostly naked. He was a small man, no more than 5 and a half feet and 140 pounds with bushy brown hair that looked like it had been cut with children's scissors. He had a scruffy beard that made his face look more aged, but when she thought about it, he couldn't have been more than 30. She couldn't help but wonder how he had gotten mixed up with the Joker. He seemed much more civilized than most of the other men she had encountered.

"Are you being held here too?" She asked softly, her voice barely above a whisper.

"You're the only prisoner here." He said simply, not bothering to look up at her as he applied ointment to her legs.

It was quiet for a moment before she continued. "How did you-"

"Don't talk." He ordered

She sighed, turning her head to the side, ignoring him as he finished his work.

On the other side of the wall behind her, The Joker stare into the room by way of a small slit in the wall that was hidden by a tiny two way mirror. It was cliché, but he couldn't be expected to say no when there was a free show. He grinned at her attempts to cover herself, and the angry glares she was throwing at the doctor in a sad attempt to scare him off. It was hilarious to watch. She still had a lot of fight in her, but he would get rid of that soon enough. He could hardly contain his excitement as his mind ran over all of things he planned to do to her. It wasn't long before he was interrupted by the sounds of footsteps coming closer to him. His mouth turned into an annoyed frown as he looked up to see one of his men standing at a safe distance away, waiting to be acknowledged. The Joker looked him over before giving a grunt and turning back to the window in an understood indication to speak.

"Sir, all of the charges are set and ready." He said calmly.

The Joker held out his hand, not turning away from the window as the detonator was placed in it and the man began to walk away without another word. The smile returned to the Joker's lips as he glanced down at the object. They were going to have so much fun tomorrow.

After Arella was patched up, another guard escorted her back to the cell like room without a word, walking behind her as he held a large gun at his waist. She could feel him eyeing her body from behind, but she refused to turn around, simply pretending as if it wasn't happening. She was pretty sure that most of the men there weren't bold enough to actually try anything, but that wouldn't spare her the wayward glances from the sex-starved men when the Joker wasn't looking.

She only held her breath, not relaxing until the door of her cell had been closed behind her and she heard a lock. It was strange that she felt safer in prison than roaming about on her own recognizance, but that was the situation at hand. As she looked over, she noticed that both her diary and the video camera had been removed from the room, leaving her with the mattress and chair once again and absolutely nothing to do. Luckily, the pain medicine that the doctor had given her was beginning to set in as she sat down on her mattress. And as she gazed at the ceiling, it wasn't long before she passed out. And in her restless sleep, she dreamt.

**A/N: Thanks to everyone who's read so far! It's nice to know that there are still Joker fans out there after all this time! Not that Bane wasn't equally awesome, but that's another story for another time. :) **

**Thanks to Nemesis and guests for reviewing, and I can't wait to hear from more of you! What would you like to see in the story? I've already gotten a number of chapters completed but I love opinions! **


	5. Chapter 5

****Ahh! thanks for reading so far guys and special thanks to the people who've taken a moment to review. I love getting feedback from everyone so if you have any suggestions, comments, compliments, or just want to drop a 'hey' then by all means... :) ****

_She was back in her old room again, though much older than she had been on that life changing night. She could tell how much later it was, couldn't tell how old she was, Instead it seemed she was experiencing the entire decade of her life in that apartment at this singular moment. Faint screams leaked through the seams of the window as she lay there. A sleepy hand reached over to her nightstand to grab her headphones to block out the sound like she had become so accustomed to doing. Her hand tapped the counter top a couple of times with no success before she finally opened her eyes, sitting up and looking over to realize that there was nothing there. A groan escaped her lips as she looked around with a confused gaze at the room she was in. It was her room, to be sure. But it was…off and she couldn't figure out why. After a third sweep, she figured out what it was. The room was bathed in an eerie pink and green glow. She glanced to her right to see a bright neon light, much like the ones she had seen at the many frat houses on her college campus, flashing the word "girls" against the ugly yellow flowered wall paper on the far wall. A sigh of relief escaped her lips once she had found the source and she fell back onto the bed, shutting her eyes before it occurred to her that she could still hear the screaming, and it was getting louder. She rolled over, covering her head with a pillow to no avail. Then two. Then the blanket. Still, it only got louder the more she tried to avoid it. With a whimper, she rolled over to her back, pinning the two pillows on either side of her head in vain as she stare up at the ceiling, wishing it would go away. The screams were torturing her, trying to force her from her head, begging her to give the help that she never gave again. And the longer she lay there, trying to ignore them, the louder they began to get. She wondered how many people had died outside her window in those ten years. By the sounds of it, there were hoards. She wanted to help them, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to do anything to save them, not at this point. As she stare up at the ceiling, she noticed a movie poster for the seventh Harry Potter movie, something that didn't come out until long after she had moved. She looked confused for a moment before breaking down in tears, closing her eyes as she tried to block it out._

_"I'm sorry." She whimpered allowed. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry" She said repeatedly though not opening her eyes as she tried to deal with the guilt she felt for simply being alive. She knew she was dreaming at this point, but that didn't take away the pain that felt so real right now. All she wanted was to wake up and end this nightmare. But it wouldn't stop, and she couldn't make it. _

_Scraping at the ceiling forced her eyes up again where she saw a think black liquid begin to seep into the room where the ceilings met the wall. It quickly began to drip down towards her in a way that gave her pause. It looked like it was moving, like it was alive, and as if it were trying to get to her. She let out a short scream before finally pulling the blankets over her face and hiding, praying that she would wake up soon. _

She wasn't sure how long it was before she heard the clink of the lock again, but it felt like she had been lying there for days, fading in and out of consciousness. Her mouth was dry and she was starving. It wasn't unusual for her to go a day or so without eating, so she figured it had been a while. Adding in a lack of water and the effects of the drugs on her system and she was in no shape to do more than lay there. It was a dangerous place to be when surrounded by men like the Joker and she knew it.

Finally, the door opened. "Hello Beautiful." He said with a grin in a level of voice that was almost too much for her head to take. He was already dressed in his regalia, seemingly the same outfit from a few days ago minus the blood stains.

She groaned, reaching up to feel the tender stiches on her head, flinching slightly. "Please…go away." She said softly, turning away from him to face the wall and curling into a ball, using her hair to cover her eyes. It had gotten uncomfortably frizzy after the Joker's impromptu shower with nothing more than water. She doubted that the addition of a 'please' was anyway to keep his anger in check, but she hoped it was enough. It was the best she could do right now and she really wished he'd just walk away.

"Can't do that, darling." He grinned excitedly. "I have a _fun _night planned for the two of us. And while I already look _dashing,_" He placed his gloved hands on his lapels with a satisfied hum. "We gotta fix you up."

She passed a sideways glance at him before rolling her eyes. "No." She said simply.

He narrowed his eyes at her as he let out an angry grunt, taking an unseen step forward with a gnash of his teeth before stopping himself. "Boy, that wall really scrambled your brains, huh?" He said with a sadistic cackle, his footfalls belaying how angry he really was.

She didn't reply, simply staring at the wall as she tried to brace herself for the pain she was about to feel. Maybe if she apologized there was a chance she'd get off light, but it didn't matter right now. She felt his presence above her before she felt the grove grab her shoulder, squeezing tightly as he jerked her over onto her bank.

She set her jaw tightly, holding back the cries of pain she wanted to let out and trying to keep her face calm-without much success-as he kneeled down so that he was straddling her, pressing all of his weight onto her bruised abdomen. She could barely breathe like this, but she tried not to let on how much it was actually hurting her. But he knew, and he enjoyed it.

"Now." He continued, sucking on his scars and picking up her hand almost tenderly before wrapping both of his around hers, resting his chin on them. "I am _really _excited about our-uh-date tonight. So I'm willing to chalk your little outburst up to…_hor_mones, or whatever problem it is you women have." He removed one of his hands to give a dismissive wave. "If you just. Apologize." He sang at the end, setting his lips in a sort of pout as he looked down at her expectantly.

A frown crossed her lips, feeling her blood boil at his comment. It was like he didn't take responsibility for anything. After being beaten, kidnapped, and left alone in this hovel, having her anger compared to PMS was infuriating. With a role of her eyes, she turned her head defiantly to look at the wall again.

"Women." He said simply. The dark chuckle that emitted from his lips was terrifying. She immediately wanted to take it back, but before she could say anything, he sneered, the hands surrounding her own beginning to contract with crushing force, forcing her to cry out in pain. Her experience over the past few days told her that the Joker was strong, but he was deceptively strong. He didn't seem to be extending a whole lot of effort to crush her fist and prevent her from pulling away.

"I'm sorry!" She shouted breathlessly. "Christ, I'm sorry!" She'd never been a very religious person, but it was surprising how quickly she called out to anyone when she was in this much pain.

"What was that?" He leaned closer as if trying to hear her better, tightening his grip again causing her to scream again.

"Please!" She shouted out. "I'm sorry!"

A giggle escaped from his lips as he continued to squeeze. "I can't under_stand_ you when you're like this, _Ella." _He sneered, obviously trying to annoy her.

She tried to calm herself down, attempting to take a deep breath but failing as he crushed her lungs, still not letting up. Finally, when she was felt like she was able to speak without screaming, she looked up at him. "I'm sorry." She said again finally, breathing hard. It pained her to say it, but she just wanted him to move.

"For _what?" _

She attempted another deep breath as tears flowed out of her eyes. "I'm sorry for being rude." In a complete sentence this time because she didn't want to give him any other reason to stall.

He pondered the words for a moment before giving a quick grin, dropping her hand and stepping off of her swiftly, as if already annoyed with the interaction. He completely ignored her as she whimpered, holding her hand close to her chest. She didn't think it was broken, but there would definitely be a few bruises.

"So what do you think, kid. Up for a little _fun_?"

Not one part of her wanted to find out what his idea of fun entailed, but at the risk of being hurt again, she simply nodded.

"Good! Let's get you a bath, hmm?" He said, already turning to head out through the open door.

Arella took that as an invitation to follow, crawling to her feet as quickly as possible so that she wouldn't be punished again for not moving fast enough. The movement was ill advised however as the effects of dehydration, pain, and moving too quickly made her dizzy. She only management a couple of quick steps forward to try and catch up before passing out and collapsing on the floor. 

When she came to, it was with a start as her balance seemed off. She jumped, looking around wildly before realizing that she was being lowered into a full bathtub. With a scream, she jerked her eyes up to see the Joker hovering over her. He was going to drown her. Why couldn't he have just sliced her throat when she was passed out? He had obviously taken his time getting her to this room and running the water, how sick could one man be. He legs kicked frantically as she tried to climb out of the tub against his attempts to hold her slippery body in.

Eventually, with an annoyed growl, he grabbed her neck, pinning her so that her nose was just barely above the water, causing a generous amount to slosh back into her mouth. Without a word, his black eyes stare at her, waiting for her to calm down. It was then that Arella remembered him mentioning that she was going to take a bath and her legs stilled. In her disoriented state, she thought she was about to die, but it was just a bath. Her eyes drifted up to him, trying to show that she was calm.

Finally he let her go; allowing her to sit up in the tub, and cough out some of the water as her body shook. When she finally managed to breath normally again, she wrapped her arms around herself, looking around. The room that they were in looked like an industrial sized bathroom. At least eight old, mint green tubs lined the wall and she had been placed in the last one, furthest away from the door. Old leaves and twigs covered the black and white tiled floor and dirty, cream colored wooden walls rose high above her to a vaulted ceiling speckled with skylights, a couple of which were actually open and broken. Through them, she could see that it was in fact night as a hint of the moon peeked through. She finally figured that the building they were in was a hospital of sorts. An old one at that.

"_Better_?" He said with a sneer, walking off before she could answer to grab a surgical table filled with bath supplies and rolling it over to the tub with a hum. He had since taken off his Jacket, rolled up his sleeves, and removed his gloves, but was otherwise in the same attire. Her eyes drifted to the table, hoping that there was conditioner on there and something for her hair.

"Thank you." She muttered, unhappily before reaching over to the surgical table to grab the soap first.

"Ah-ta, ta." He slapped her hand away before reaching over and taking the loufa himself, sitting on the edge of the tub. "I'm going to _enjoy _this." He said as he dipped his hand in the water to wet the sponge.

'oh no.' She thought to herself, pulling away from the hand invading her bath. He grinned, giving her a knowing look before turning back to the cart, looking through the assortment of supplies that were clearly purchased by a man who had no clue what to get for the Joker. His hand hovered over the cart before grabbing a bottle of bottle wash, holding it up to his nose before being thrown behind him and reaching for the next one.

"No." Another one discarded. "No." A third one. The fourth one caused him to pause, taking a second sniff before giving a content hum. "White Necterine Pear." He read the name before looking at her. "Sound good to you?"

She barely nodded, knowing that he was only doing this to remind her of the control he had over her. What she did. What she wore-or didn't wear-, and now…what she smelled like. It disgusted her, but then again, so did he. "Sounds fine." She muttered, looking away from him as he poured nearly a third of the bottle onto the pouf, beginning to wash, starting with her chest of course.

She resisted the urge to role her eyes or recoil in disgust. Instead she just sat stiffly as he washed her in slow strokes, taking an agonizingly long time, after circling around to her chest for the third time, his hand began to descend further into the water and she couldn't sit passively any longer. She jumped, grabbing his arm near the elbow and holding tightly, causing him to pause. She whimpered when he turned his head to glare at her, desperately shaking her head back and forth.

To her surprise, instead of getting angry, he slowly smiled, forcing her arm further down despite her grasp while he kept his eyes on her the whole time, devouring the mixture of fear and desperateness on her face and daring her to try and stop him as she tried to clinch her legs shut. He was able to maneuver his hand between them anyway, rubbing her slowly with the pouf, still eying her closely.

Tear filled brown eyes finally clinched shut, unable to look at him anymore as she began to cry. She let go of his arm, gripping the sides of the tub instead. It wasn't helping anyway and being able to feel his muscles contract as he moved was driving her crazy. He seemed to enjoy this new, uninhibited access, taking his time to run the loufah down her thigh, lifting her leg out of the water, admiring it for a moment before tracing back to where her thighs met, allowing his bare hand to run across her folds before continuing to the second leg. He smirked to himself, mentally noting how little hair he had felt. After wiping the second leg, he pulled the pouf out of the water, looking back at her and waiting for her eyes to open.

The lack of contact unnerved her enough to do just that, he was looking at her expectantly, as if he was completely unaware of why she was behaving that way.

"Well you gonna stand up or what?"

She gave a shaky nod, readjusting her hands on the tub and pushing herself up as he lathered and began to wash her backside. It was hard for the Joker to hide his grin at this point. It was difficult to hide a little more than that…he was a man after all. But he did, crouching below the tub level as he watched the water falling off of her. He had other plans for them tonight and if he wasn't careful, he might get stuck here.

After what seemed like hours, he finally pulled away, bringing the loufah back up to her shoulder and squeezing the water down her back and grumbling at her to sit down as he grabbed the shampoo. He washed her hair much quicker than he had her body, deciding that his plan to torture her was backfiring and he was ready to get out of the bathroom. When he had finally applied and rinsed the conditioner, her threw her a towel, turning away from her with his arms crossed as he waited.

Arella took the towel shakily, grateful that he wasn't gawking at her for the time being. She felt violated, and terrified. If she couldn't even stop him from fondling her, she knew that there was no hope if he decided that he wanted more. She eyed him, wondering if he would turn as soon as she stood, but he didn't. Didn't turn at all until he heard the telltale sound of leaves crunching under her feet.

He scowled, looking down at her bare feet then looking at the glass on the ground from the skylights closer to the door. He could make her walk through it, that'd be fun to see, but it'd also ruin his plans for the rest of the night. He squinted before looking at her, standing completely still as she waited for him to move, her eyes still red from crying.

He gave a condescending smile, "Well you look _sad." _He started, taking a step towards her.

She didn't reply, wishing he would stop with the games and simply do whatever he planned to.

"Don't worry." He tilting his head to the syllabus, because you're gonna love what I have in store for us." With that he quickly leaned down, picking her up and throwing her over his shoulder as she squealed in protest. "I mean it. I've been planning this for _days_." He skipped excitedly, bouncing her over his shoulder.

After throwing her a simple pair of jeans and a black tee shirt, he allowed her to get dressed for the first time in days. He hadn't bothered to get her underclothes for whatever reason, but she wasn't about to complain. He had even given her a brush so that she could fix her wet her into side braid. The shoes that he threw her were a set of combat boots and finally, after sliding a blindfold over her face, he carried her to a waiting van, tossing her in the back as if she truly were a sack of potatoes. She really hated that she was rarely allowed to walk anywhere unless she was naked. It was truly demeaning but that was probably the point.

The Joker climbed into the back with her before yelling at the driver to go.

"Where are we going?" She questioned weakly, pushing herself up to a sitting position. Her body felt so weak from the lake of food and water. She wanted to ask him for something to drink at least. Perhaps he didn't realize how long she had been without it. One question at a time, though.

"Well we don't want to ruin the _surprise_, do we?" He patted her leg as the car pulled away, causing her to flinch. "Though I've gotta say. I'm not sure I _like_ you in clothes." His hand moved further up her leg.

"Stop it!" She kicked him away, causing him to chuckle, leaning his face closer to her ear so that she could feel his warm breath on her neck.

"You are _so _cute when you're scared." He said in a low voice, though loud enough for the rest of the van to hear. "Sometimes I just can't _help _myself."

As he spoke, she felt his glove trace the hem of her shirt, angering her even more as she tried to make out her surroundings through the blindfold. "Don't touch me." She yelled at him, pushing him away once more.

He cackled, pulling away from her and settling back against the wall, remaining mostly quiet for the rest of the trip except to occasionally throw insults at the driver when his turns were too wide or he had to slam on the brakes. Finally the van stopped, and the Joker pulled off her blindfold roughly, grinning at her excitedly.

Her head whipped around wildly, trying to get a glimpse out of the window to figure out where she was. The Joker only sat back on his haunches, waiting for her to attempt to understand what was going on. She could see that they were in the parking lot of a brightly lit building. It took her a moment to read the sign before she looked at the Joker, confused.

"What are we doing at Barney's?" She questioned, her eyes narrowed.

"Surprise!" He laughed at her confusion, clapping his hands.

"I don't understand." She said, glancing at the two goons up front who were looking out the window, ignoring them.

"I _said, _if you were a good _girl, _I'd let you have clothes." He tilted his head as if rethinking his phrasing. "I'll admit, you haven't been the-ah-ray of sunshine I was hoping for, but we'll consider this a..."He sucked his scars. "Good faith offering."

Her mouth dropped as she glared at him, anger building inside her. "Ray of-…You kidn-"

"Ah." He warned her, placing a gloved hand over her mouth to stop her with a slight pout, "Don't make me change my mind, sweet cheeks."

She let out an angry huff as her hands fisted near her waist. He was infuriating.

"Now," He used his free hand to slide something free from his pocket, holding it up so that she could clearly see the huge wad of hundreds in his hand. "You have thirty minutes to go in there and get whatever it is you women think you need. If you aren't back here by then, I'm coming to get you." He searched her eyes, waiting for her to reply before getting impatient. "Nod if you _understand_."

She nodded quickly, ready to hop out of the van and never return.

"Good." He smiled, removing his hand and tossing the money in her lap. He pulled out a piece of fabric behind him, a scarf it seemed and began tying it around her bruised neck before dropping his voice to a dangerous low. "If you try to run or tell anyone who you are, I _will_ find you." He sang the last part with a dangerous smile, tapping her nose.

Her body froze for a moment as she stare at him, taken aback as for a brief moment, she was absolutely positive that he had read her mind. He looked at her expectantly now as if waiting for her to do something. When she sat there, unmoving, he frowned.

"Go!"

The loudness of his voice brought her back from her stupor as she nodded dumbly, grabbing the cash and climbing out of the back of the van which was facing the store.

As soon as her feet hit the ground, she had considered running, but one glance behind her to the smirking man changed her mind. She had to at least get into the store, and then maybe she had a chance. She stumbled her way to the door, stuffing the money in her pocket before wrapping her arms around herself as she headed to the store. She wasn't sure how much money she had with her but it was definitely thousands, more than enough for her to fulfill her decade's old dream of being able to have an uninhibited shopping spree at the store. But under the conditions, she would rather be anywhere but here. She had to stop looking so pathetic, at least until she figured out a plan. If she were to alert anyone to her problem too soon to be able to do anything about it, all hope would be lost. A glance back to the van and it was if the Joker hadn't moved, still studying her as she walked. She quickly turned back around, picking up her steps to the store. It was mostly glass, unfortunately, so she was sure the Joker would be able to see right through it to whatever she was doing. She wouldn't put it past him to have binoculars in the van. As she got closer to the door, she put on a fake smile, as the door was held open for her.

"Good Evening Ma'am." He gave a comforting smile, allowing her to walk through.

"Hi. Thank you." She said softly. The smile was hard enough to pull off, she definitely wouldn't be able to manage a normal tone of voice. She glanced through the windows one more time before deciding that she would actually have to shop if she wanted to have enough time to think without the Joker barging in. Nervously, she made her way to the lingerie section, grabbing a few of the plainest pieces she could in her size before rushing over to the clothing section. She wasn't paying attention to the pieces that she was grabbing, mostly she was just going to each rack, grabbing a size 6 and moving on as she tried to think of an escape. The store was relatively crowded, so there was a good chance that she could somehow blend into the hoards of people and go completely unnoticed. There was also a back door, she remembered, but it opened up to an ally way. That didn't seem like a great idea and was guarded with an alarm. Maybe she could hide within the large store and then make a run for it when she got a chance but she was already picturing a number of flaws with that plan. In her mindless state, it didn't take more than 10 minutes before she had an armful of stuff, trying to figure out how she would carry it all so that she could finish.

One of the associated laughed as she walked over to her, a middle aged woman with beautiful brunette curls that hung over her shoulders in perfect ringlets "Ma'am. You don't need to carry all that around. We can hold it at the front until your done shopping, or start a fitting room if you want to try them on."

Arella panicked briefly. If the Joker saw her talking to this woman he would assume. It was probably already too late, with a sigh; she figured that she'd try her chances. Forcing a smile so that it would look more natural from the outside, she spoke through clenched teeth. "Look, you've got to help me. Call the police, the Jo-"

Before she could finish her sentence, a shot rang out behind her, sending her and all the other store patrons screaming to the floor, a couple of people scrambled behind the register while others still made a run for the back door. When she looked up, the lady she had just been talking to was already lying still in a pool of blood. A glance behind her and she saw a man who, just a second ago, had been just a random shopper was now standing with a gun in his hand and a phone to his ear.

"Shit." She squeaked out, about to scramble under the display racks before a voice stopped her in her tracks.

"Good _evening, _shoppers." It came with a humored tone, the nasally tone extra played up for the terrified people as she heard his footsteps head to the register while a number of other footsteps rushing throughout the store. It was almost deathly quiet in the store save for the sound of his singing before finally she heard the intercom switch on. She couldn't see him, but she was dreading the expression he had on his face.

"That's better." He said with a happy grin that she could almost hear spreading across his face as his voice spread throughout the store. "Now, I seemed to have lost something of _mine_ somewhere in. this. Store. Has _anyone _seen a woman, about…yeigh high. Brown hair, brown eyes…_Beautiful." _He paused as if waiting for a reply, she could hear the sound of him sucking his cheeks over the speaker, it was disgusting. "No?" There was another long, uncomfortable pause. She knew that she should stand up lest she make her punishment even worse, but her body wouldn't move. She glanced at the man behind her holding a gun, wondering why he hadn't pointed her out before lowering her head again.

Another sound of lips smacking filled the store before a single gunshot ring out again, followed by screaming.

"_Elllllla_. Sweetheart…." He said calmly, another shot and the sound of crying. "Don't make me kill .people." After each of the last three words, more shots rang out. She could hear someone screaming in pain and it was finally too much, she let out a loud sob before crawling up to her feet. The Joker was perched on the countertop next to a cash register no less than thirty feet away with at least 3 dead bodies in front of him and a large gun in hand, smiling directly at her as if he'd known where she was the entire time. "_Found_ her." He sang. Glancing around, she could see that there were at least 6 other men in clown masks surrounding the room. She whimpered in fear as the Joker tossed the microphone aside, hopping off of the desk as he moved towards her with slow, and methodical steps. His chin tilted down as he looked at her with pure murder in his eyes as his lips pursed together.

"I'm sorry." She whispered, backing up and holding her hands up defensively as he came close enough. Tears began rapidly filling her eyes as she tried to move away from him. "I didn't mean to. I'm sorry."

He only gave an evil smirk, waving the gun at her. "I am _very _disappointed in you." He said in a low, still musical voice. "You see what you made me do? And here I thought we were having _fun._"

She gasped at how carelessly he was waving the gun around. "I'm sorry, Joker." She repeated, unsure of what to say.

"Oh you will be." He growled, holding out his hand expectantly.

She reached into her pocket with much difficulty as she pulled out the wad of money and handing it too him. He was going to kill her, in front of all these people.

The money slid into his pocket without a second glance, gesturing for one of the goons behind him to pick up the huge pile of clothes that she had dropped onto the floor in her panic. He watched the man quickly gather everything and rush off before placing a hand on the back of her neck, gripping it tightly and causing her to cringe. "Ya done shopping, dear?" He said in a surprisingly light tone despite the crippling grip on her neck.

This scared her more than anything as she barely managed to get out a weak nod.

While baring his teeth, he let out a low growl. "Let's go home then, hmm?" He forced her to turn and walk ahead of him out the front door past two more armed clowns.

As soon as they made it through the front door, the rest of the other goons filed out as well. Two of them turned, chaining the handles of the door before rushing off. She tried to look back but the Joker yanked her forward forcing her into the van and climbing in after her, waving for the driver to go even before the door was closed. As the van squealed away, he glared down at her before pulling something else from his pocket, not removing his eyes from hers.

"No!" She screamed at him, instantly recognizing the detonator and scrambling to get to her knees to stop him before he hit the button. She was too slow, though, and before she could even get close he pressed it, grinning the entire time.

The blast shook the van, even at the 60 miles per hour they were already going. Here face fell as she scrambled to look out the back window, not believing that he had blown it up. He grabbed the back of her neck with a growl, slamming her down on her back with a giggle. "That _was _fun, wasn't it?"

She looked up at him in disbelief. It suddenly became painfully obvious that he had planned this, he knew that she would try to escape and he had already planted the explosives to blow the place up when she did. Those people were dead because of her, and the clothes the he had forced her to _steal _would forever remind her of that fact. He wasn't angry because his plan had gone off without a hitch, As she began to hyperventilate her eyes narrowed and her senses left her.

"You fucking piece of shit!" She yelled at him as she reached out, punching him hard in the nose with a scream, her other fist landing on his cheek as she continued to attack him. Angry and humiliated, she knew that he would nearly kill her for this but she didn't care. All that mattered was making him suffer as much as she could even if that was only a little. At the very least, she wanted her anger to match hers. To feel what she was feeling by any means necessary.

The Joker seemed honestly taken aback for a moment before coming to his senses quickly as her fists landed wherever they could. He grabbed one of her fists, slamming it hard against the metal wheel well. But she barely seemed to notice, only letting out a small shriek of pain before using her other hand, and beginning to kick him as well. With a deep throated growl, he climbed on top of her, hovering for a moment as his hands dug into her shoulders, forcing her body over onto its stomach before sitting on her back, removing her ability to hit or kick him. She continued to scream reaching behind her to claw at him, being able to catch skin a few times.

"Get the fuck off of me." She kicked hysterically. "Fucking psycho, fake, half-witted clown. I'm going to kill you." She growled. Not much of what she was saying mad sense, but she didn't care. He finally managed to get her arms behind her back, securing them together overly tightly with the same thin piece of cloth that had served as a blindfold earlier.

"I hate you!" She yelled at him again as her screams finally begin to descend into sobbing as she realized that she couldn't fight back anymore. Her kicking legs slowed to a still and she finally bang her head on the floor helplessly as she choked on her sobs. "I hate you."

"Here, let me _help _you." The Joker sneered before grabbing her head and banging it against the metal floor, knocking her out instantly.


	6. Chapter 6

**** Hey there loves! Here's chapter 6 for your viewing pleasure. I'm trying a new spacing thing so let me know how you feel about it. Long paragraphs get annoying to read so if you think they need to be even shorter, I'd love to hear it. Enjoy :) **

When she came too, she was lying in the dark in what she assumed was her cell. For the entire time that she had been here thus far, the light had remained on in an attempt to disorient her. But now, as her body lay sprawled out on the bare floor, it was pitch black.

Her head was pounding again from the hard bang it had taken from the metal floor of the van. Combined with the last few days of torture, she was pretty sure she had experienced more pain than her entire life combined. With a tired groan, she lifted her hand to her head. Luckily, she didn't feel a gash, but the bump that had already emerged felt like a tennis ball. Immediately, tears began to fall from her eyes making her head throb even more.

Even without seeing her face, she was quite sure that she looked like she belonged in some sort of institution. Up until now, the joker had left her face alone, but tonight, there was no joking in his tone, no humored smile, just pure anger. She had accomplished her goal but part of her-a part that was growing larger by the minute- was hoping he would have just killed her.

Finally forcing her self off of the floor, she crawled over to one of the corners where her mattress was before stopping. There was nothing there. She let out a whimper before turning around feeling around the small room with hopes that she was simply disoriented before realizing that it had been taken away as was her blanket. Her clothes had been left on thankfully, but she was utterly and completely defeated. Unsure of what to do, she huddled up in the corner, wrapping her arms around herself before sobbing loudly as she began to rock herself. She didn't care if anyone could hear it anymore.

An hour later, she heard the lock click shortly before the door finally opened and the light flicked on. She squinted, seeing the Joker standing in the doorway. He hadn't bothered to change his clothes or refresh his makeup leaving small patches of skin showing through the white paint.

"Have you calmed _down_?" He asked with a frown.

She tried to answer, but her words were choked off into more heavy sobs as she pressed her back against the wall, lowering her eyes away from him.

"No, then?" He watched her cry even as no tears fell, tilting his head as he studied her, enjoying her distress for a long moment. It annoyed him pretty quickly, though, and he smacked his lips before continuing.

"You _know, _you _ruined_ our night. I had the boys cook you up a _special _dinner but you just lost your _mind!" _He said with a laugh, pausing as he looked at her again.

She wasn't rising to his taunts however, nor giving him any indication that she had heard him. Just a glance at her and it was obvious why. She looked physically ill. Bruises had littered her body since the day she arrived her, but now, her face was beginning to show signs of his beatings as well. He did try to avoid aiming for her face. It was nice to look at something other than the ugly mugs of his goons day in and day out. But sometimes she was just asking for it.

The bump on her head was beginning to grow and he could see that the impact had blackened her eyes. Well, that part he somewhat enjoyed. Perhaps he would find her some red lipstick for her so that he could have a laugh every time he saw her with it on. It'd be like having a dark feminine version of him around. Minus her brooding. He did hate brooding.

For a moment, He considered reaching down and shaking her until she gave the reaction that he wanted, but with the concussion that he had given her earlier, he hadn't even been positive that she would wake up. And that wouldn't have been good. Not at all. Not when she was so much fun and he had so many plans left for her.

"Oh all _right." _He finally said with an exaggerated sigh, kneeling down to her. "To be _fair_, we both said some things we didn't mean." He said in that slow, condescending tone that she hated. "How about we let bygones be bygones and get some food in ya?"

At the mention of food, her eyes drifted up to him again and widened with hope. She nodded her head slightly, hoping he truly meant it.

Without a word, he bent forward to help her up before jumping back at the last second, narrowing her eyes at her as if he had been expecting a different reaction that her listless shift.

She looked at him, confused.

"You're not going to hit me again, are you?" He questioned, his lips pouted playfully.

She couldn't even be bothered to laugh at the bad joke, wondering if he was ever actually going to give her any food.

He frowned; annoyed that she wasn't seeing the humor in the situation. She had, twice now, attacked him and was still breathing. He found it hilarious. Of course, after throwing her roughly into her room and locking the door, he had stormed out of the building with his favorite knives, using nearly all of them on the first unlucky person he could find-some low level mobster peddling drugs about 8 miles away.

The goons who lived in the lower levels of the building were unfortunately getting too good at reading his emotions and had learned to disappear when they heard his heavy footfalls and angry muttering. Maybe it was time to do a purge soon. He did get truly bored seeing the same faces every day. Maybe if he had let her kill someone, she'd be in better spirits. He might put that to the test some other time.

"Come on, slugger." He took her arm with a disappointed frown, pulling her off of the floor, albeit much more gently than he normally would have.

Once she was finally on her feet, he led out of the room, having to support her more than he cared to as she stumbled along the hallway. A scowl crossed his lips as they slowly climbed what had once been a large, elegant, double wooden staircase leading to the fifth floor of the hospital that he had commandeered. It was now covered in a thin layer of dust, dirt, and trash as the building had been empty for years now. One of his men had managed to reroute water and electricity while keeping it off of the cities books and they had been making themselves at home here since his escape almost a month ago.

Next to him, Arella was gripping the banister for dear life as they reached the first landing where a wall of windows illuminated the open area with an eerie glow. He wanted to leave her so that he could make a run up the steps taking two at a time like he was used too, but the last thing he needed was to have her wandering around his floor with no chaperone.

His face twisted in annoyance as he made his next few footfalls exceptionally loud before letting out a growl. "Oh _come. On!_" His hands flew up in the air before storming over to her and wrapping an arm around her waist lifting her from the floor and beginning to storm up the steps.

Ignoring her squeaks of protests as her body leaned sideways, he began to mutter to himself angrily, making his way up the second flight while carrying her as if she was little more than an envelope under his arm. When he finally got close enough to the top of the stairs, he simply released her waist, letting her body drop the foot or so to the floor as he looked up to watch her panic from a few steps down.

Arella gasped, grabbing the edge of the banister so that she wouldn't fall down the steps after the sudden drop.

"Think you can walk _now?_" He frowned, crossing his arms before ascending the last few steps.

She looked up at him with a glare, wanting so badly to scream at him and remind him that the reason she could barely move was him. Over the past three days, she had begun to think that maybe he was really just this oblivious to anything that did not concern him. That fact only began to anger her even more. He was like a spoiled child who had never been told no and she hated it. But for now, she would simply keep her mouth shut. It was a miracle he was letting her eat at all after what had happened tonight.

"Yes." She replied simply, her voice shaking with anger as everything she couldn't say at the moment became clear with one look at her narrowed eyes. She hated him, more than she had imagined she could hate any one person. And though she would play his game for the time being, she was going to kill him as soon as she could.

As his eyes met hers, they both stood there in a silence pregnant with anger. Each mentally pondering how much they wanted to scream at, attack, _kill _the other. And each doing everything in their power to contain it, wondering if the other was going to move first. It was a strange moment. Though the balance of power had been almost completely shifted to the Joker's side for the entire time that she had been here, for that brief moment he wasn't her kidnapper and she wasn't his captive. They were just two people filled with rage.

It didn't last long, however. The Joker was steadily getting angrier as she glare at him and was itching to put her back in her place. The look she was giving him at the moment was almost as bad as hearing her smart mouth and he couldn't have that. No he couldn't.

With a low growl, he leaned closer to her. "You know, if you keep looking at me like that-ah, I'm gonna start to think you don't want to _see _me. I could _always_ let you eat downstairs." He hummed, his lips brushing against her ear in an attempt to unnerve her. To send her back to the submissive place her preferred for her. "My men would _love _to have a chance with a feisty little _tart_-ah like you." As he finished, he pulled his head away from hers to glare at her, he wanted to see all that anger she was emitting change to fear, watch those eyes fill with terror. And she didn't disappoint. As soon as his eyes met hers, she quickly turned her head to look down at the floor instead.

"I'm sorry." Her voice broke the second awkward silence with barely a whisper, hating herself for the fear she was feeling right now. But the expression on his face right now was one of the most terrifying she had ever had him shoot her way. She was positive that if she had made the ill-advised decision to challenge him again, she wouldn't make it another minute. "I'm just hungry."

Finally, he giggled, standing up straight and moving away from her down the hallway, knowing she would follow. "You women and your hormones." He laughed again before his mouth quickly turned down into an unseen frown once he was far enough away. At this rate, he and his knives would have to go out again before the night was over.

The Joker led her the rest of the way down the curved wide hallway completely covered with windows on one side before stopping at a door where he pulled a set of keys out of his pocket, jingling them overly hard for a moment and pretending to look for the correct one as he smirked at her.

Arella resisted the urge to roll her eyes; he was stalling now and it was driving her crazy. Instead, she decided to ignore him as she leaned against the wall and let out a soft sigh, looking out through the windows across from her.

It was strange how peaceful everything looked from here, even while she knew that somewhere out there, the entire Gotham City PD was frantically searching for clues through the charred remains of one of the city's most upscale stores. She tried to spot some sort of Landmark in the distance, but there was nothing but rows and rows of trees rolling over the hills. Maybe that meant that the city was in the other direction. It had taken them 30 minute to get to Barney's so they were probably pretty far away. Either that or the Joker had purposefully driven around in circles to throw her off. She wouldn't put it past him.

It was beautiful in this part of the building, even with the excessive dirt and trash that covered the concrete floors and peeling walls. She highly doubted that the Joker had purchased the place for its aesthetic appeal, but that didn't make it any less so.

When she glanced back at the Joker, she was surprised to see him looking at her as if she had completely lost it, his hand on the doorknob of the open door as with his shoulders hunched over. She hadn't heard him open the door and wasn't sure how long he had been staring at her. For a brief moment, she considered apologizing before simply lowering her head and walking into the room past him, trying hard to press he body as far away from him as possible through the small door frame in order to avoid touching him. He only grunted before following her in and slamming the door behind them.

Arella looked around as she entered, it was a bedroom obviously, and one that was much better than the one she had been given. It was almost three times as large as the cell and a metal bed frame sat in the corner next to a pointed alcove that featured floor to almost ceiling windows right before the wall sloped into a pointed cieling. It was still decaying as much as the rest of the place, but the floor had been swept and clean white linens had been haphazardly thrown onto the mattress. Across from it, an old dusty red couch sat against the opposite wall near a wooden wardrobe and an almost threadbare rug covered the floor. But the most exciting part of the room was the desk, bolted to the floor next to the window, which was topped with an entire package of water and a few plates of food.

Her eyes widened, happily. Part of her had been positive that the Joker was lying to her just to torture her further. He truly didn't seem to have a limit to how much he could dish out. But as she stare at the food on the table she could almost cry, it was almost too good to be true. That thought gave her pause as she wrapped her arms around her stomach which had begun to protest her delay. What if this _was _his way of torturing her further? To let her come within arm's reach of food that she couldn't have. Unsteady eyes raised to her captor as he walked confidently past her over to the table and picked up a piece of shrimp, popping it in his mouth and chewing it noisily.

"Mmm." He hummed happily, even as he picked up two more, stuffing them in his mouth in order to free up a hand to grab a bottle of water, drinking much of it in one gulp.

From the middle of the room, Arella remained completely still as her wide eyes followed every bit of food he put into his mouth. She found herself glancing down at the desk after every bite that he ate, making sure that there was still enough food there. Each time reassured her that there was, but her heart still dropped with his next piece. His table manners were abysmal, but she didn't care at the moment. Hers probably would be too, if she ever got a chance to eat.

After watching him for what seemed like forever, she couldn't wait any longer. She took a deep breath before looking up at him. "May I have some….please?" Her voice almost cracked from fear.

The Joker turned around to look at her with the same look he had held outside the door as he still munched on a piece of shrimp. He could almost burst into laughter as he did. She looked so pitiful standing there all huddled up in the middle of the floor, her wide eyes hungry as she watched. He had half expected her to run past him to the table, but instead she just stood there, heavily bruised and starving as she awaited his command. He did love when she begged.

"_Well_…" he said finally, gesturing to the food, managing to keep his grin under control.

She didn't need any more of an invitation than that, running over quickly and grabbing four of the water bottles and a plate quickly before darting over to an empty spot on the floor in front of the window before he could stop her.

She had barely unloaded her loot on the floor and sat when she tore the top of the first twenty ounce size bottle, guzzling it down without hesitation before grabbing the second and doing the same. She wasn't sure when she would get the chance to eat again or how long the Joker would give her before he interrupted so she tried to get as much down as possible at once.

At the desk, the Joker had stopped chewing, staring at her in slight shock. He was sure it hadn't been _that _long since she'd eaten or drank anything. Mentally, he recounted the last few days before realizing it had. He'd have to have a _talk_ with the goon guarding the door for not reminding him to water their guest. He watched her open the third bottle of water before his mouth turned into a soft smirk.

'Oh this was about to get good'. Setting down the bottle in his hand, he reached behind the desk, grabbing a small trash can and placing it near his feet, tapping his foot idly as he waited. She didn't even seem to notice that he was there anymore as she finished the third bottle, opening the next bottle and starting once more. But this time, she only managed to get a third of the way down before stopping, pulling the bottle away from her mouth and sitting there awkwardly for a moment.

Without a word, his foot tapped the metal trash can to get her attention. She understood immediately, her face twisting in pain before she scrambled over to the can, stuffing her face in and cringing as much of the water she had just downed emptied into the trash can.

The Joker let out a loud cackle, slapping his knee as she did, watching her heave before she finally stopped, breathing hard.

Accusing eyes finally looked up at him as one hand gripped her stomach and the other kept the trashcan in place. "What did you put in there?" She questioned finally.

"_Me?_" He placed his fingers on his chest, still laughing. "I would _never_. Where's the fun in poison?" He pretended to wipe his eyes. "No. No. _That _one was your fault."

"What?"

"Well you can't drink nothing for _days_ and then drink everything at once." He giggled as if he were merely telling her the sky was blue.

"Why didn't you stop me?" She almost yelled at him, catching herself and lowering her tone almost immediately.

"Because _you _have a heck of a right punch." He laughed, waving a shrimp at her before tossing it back into his mouth.

She wiped her mouth with her sleeve, relaxing against the can for another moment.

"I'm left handed." She muttered, not thinking that he had heard her until he let out a humored snort.

"Well that explains it." He patted his right cheek with a grin, slinking over to the bed and flopping down before swinging his legs up and lying back, his hands behind his head. "You gonna eat that?" He gestured to her plate.

She gave a slow nod, crawling back over to her plate and sitting back on the floor with her legs crossed, beginning to eat, though much slower than she had been when drinking. The food was surprisingly delicious but she was sure that had something to do with eating nothing for days. It was difficult to eat slowly as she moved around the plate of shrimp, rice, pineapple, and grilled chicken. The mixture was strange and she wondered who had cooked it, but none of that mattered right now.

For the next fifteen minutes, she focused on her stomach after each bite, making sure that it didn't begin another protest before continuing. For a while, she almost forgot that the Joker was within arm's reach, staring at her as she ate. He was surprisingly quiet during the whole thing, and it wasn't until she sat back from the plate with a satisfied sigh that she looked up at him, somewhat awkwardly.

Now that she had eaten, the silence was beginning to unnerve her. But he barely seemed interested in her at the moment as he stare up at the ceiling with a blank expression. For a moment, she thought that he had fallen asleep, but she could see him tapping his shoes together idly. It was strange to see him like this, not throwing jabs in her direction or torturing her in one way or another. He seemed relaxed and she wasn't sure how to react to that version of the Joker. The silence was broken by his nasally voice.

"I know I'm good lookin' sweet cheeks, but now you're just being _rude_."

She quickly turned away. "Sorry." She muttered, picking up her half empty bottle of water and starting to open the top before deciding against it. She was feeling much better after eating and with the Joker in such a relaxed state, she figured it'd be the best time to get some of her questions answered. But she had no idea where to start, it was like trying to navigate a mine field, not knowing what would set him off. But she had to try.

"Those people…at the store…" Her voice stammered a bit before she paused, pursing her lips and mentally scolding herself for being so skittish. She took a breath before continuing. "Were you always going to blow it up?" Her voice returned a little stronger as she looked out of the window.

It was silent for a moment when a slow laugh began rumbling in the Joker's chest before he swung his legs back to the floor, sitting up on the edge of the bed and resting his forearms lazily on his thighs with a grin on his face. "Feeling a little responsible are ya?" he questioned finally.

Her eyes barely looked over at him in an annoyed glace. It was the joker who had set those charges, who had pressed the detonator, who had shot 5 people before making his exit. None of that was her fault. But she couldn't help but feel guilty.

With a hop of the bed, the Joker suddenly sat on the floor beside her, matching her position and crossing his legs as he leaned close as if they were close friends sharing secrets. Being this close to him, she could see that the Joker hadn't completely made it out of their fight unscathed. T

he beginnings of bruised skin had started to peek out from his collar where he never bothered to apply makeup. And she could swear she saw her hand imprint in the smeared paint on his jaw. Glancing down at his hands, she saw four trails of blood were she had clawed at him. She couldn't help but wonder how much more damage she had done underneath the paint. The thought almost made her smile.

"I'll be honest. I _was _going to blow it up. I mean, I put so much _work _into it. I couldn't just let it go to waste!" He giggled, flailing his arms in the animated way he always did as he spoke. "But I would have _waited_. Maybeeee…twenty minutes. When the store _closed._" He gave a sympathetic frown, as if understanding her guilt. "_See, _I just like to keep Gotham's finest on their _toes_. But you…" He chuckled, throwing an arm around her shoulder as he continued, almost unbearably close to her.

She had realized pretty quickly that he enjoyed invading the personal space of others. It was just another one of his intimidation techniques and it definitely worked.

"You wanted more. And how could I say no to you?" He finished finally with a lazy smile.

"There were kids in there." Her voice shook from anger.

"I _know." _He gave a low chuckle. "The _gall_ of parents keeping their little ones out that late in Gotham. You really did teach 'em a lesson, killer."

The last word, spoken like one of his condescending pet names really hit her in the gut. Of course he would blame this all on her. "You're sick." She said softly.

"Now, now." He waged his finger, tilting his chin and looking up at her. "Let's not be humble. I _did _warn you. And then to let four people die while you were hiding…" He gave a sadistic smile, making a clicking sound. "You _do _know how to impress me, Ella."

A sniffle escaped her nose as she felt like she was going to break down in sobs again.

He released his shoulder from his grip, snaking around to look straight at her with false concern. "Don't _cry._ You should be happy. Do you notice where we are right now?" He gestured around the room before looking at her expectantly.

She raised her head in confusion, staring around the area. "Is this your room?" She questioned softly. The thought unnerved her. She had never kidded herself about what the madman could, and probably would do to her at some point and her fears were only intensified by the awkward bath she had been given earlier. Mentally, she tried to prepare herself for whenever the moment would come but she wasn't sure that was even possible.

"No. This is _your_ room." He said with a smug smile.

She looked at him oddly, unsure she had heard him correctly. "What?"

He grinned, standing now. "Right next to mine. Where you belong."

Her mouth dropped even more, she wasn't sure it'd be possible for her to sleep with the Joker's room next to hers. And did that mean she could walk around now? There were so many questions that she wanted to ask, but it only came out as the only one she could articulate at the moment. "There's no toilet."

He chuckled, walking over a second door near the end of the bed that she hadn't noticed before pushing it open, leaning on the wall and gesturing inside.

She quickly scrambled to her feet, rushing to the door and peering inside. It was actually a bathroom. Not just a cold metal toilet, but a bathroom with an old porcelain bathtub with a sink, mirror, and toilet. It was still relatively sparse, but she didn't care. She could shower now, take baths if she wanted to. It was almost too much to take as she felt tears fill her eyes. It was strange to be excited about something so minimal, but she couldn't help the excitement she felt. It didn't make sense that after attacking him so angrily earlier, he would finally give her food and a proper bed. A nagging in the back of her mind told her that of course the Joker had ulterior motives for this, and that she would regret being so excited when she found out why. But for now, this little room was like heaven.

"What do you _say_?" The voice came from the doorway of the bathroom where he was still standing, amused by her excitement. She probably didn't even realize that she was smiling right now. He thought about drawing attention to the fact she was smiling because of him, but couldn't think of a funny enough reaction to make him do it.

She turned around, her eyes wide for a brief moment as if she had forgotten that he was there. "Thank you." She said finally with a sigh. And for once, she didn't grimace.

He didn't reply, that smug, lazy smile still on his lips as he simply reached up a gloved finger and tapping his cheek.

Her face scrunched up in confusion for a moment before the realization hit her. Legs locked in placed as she stared, hoping he was kidding, but he didn't move. After what seemed like forever, she took a hesitant step forward, trying to physically stay as far away from him as possible before leaning forward and placing a reluctant kiss on his cheek.

"You're a peach." A small chuckle came from his lips before he stood up straight, turning and walking out of the room, locking the door behind him.

Arella immediately ran an arm across her lips. The feel of the greasepaint made her feel dirty and she didn't want to think about why it was there more than she had to. With a glance back into the room, she could see that the food and water had been left there. With an excited smile, she picked up a water bottle and flopped down in the new bed. It smelled like the Joker, even though he had only been lying there for a short while, but she didn't care. Before she could even get the bottle of water open, sleep overtook her.

"Oh _Ella_. _Dinner_."

Her eyes shot open, a gasp leaving her lips as she heard the nasally voice outside of her locked door. She hadn't been sleeping, but her-what seemed to be-constant state of day dreaming had lulled her into something that resembled it as much as she could hope.

It had been three weeks since she had been brought to the fifth floor and since then, she had never been allowed to leave the room. The Joker had taken to bringing her at least one meal a day and leaving bottles of water which was helping her look less like the zombie she had during her first few days, but aside from that, he almost completely ignored her. It confused the hell out of her.

Every now and then, he would take time to sit and have a one sided conversation with her, but the short interactions almost always made things worse. She found that as time went on, she became more and more unsure of what to say to him leaving him quickly bored and causing him to leave in a huff. Other times, she would accidentally slip a smart comment and he would leave again without another word.

On the bright side, he hadn't hit her since she was moved, but she would almost take that abuse over the isolation that she was feeling right now. There were some nights that she simply paced in circles for hours, wondering what people on the outside were doing at any given moment.

She also found that her imagination she depended on so often as a child was beginning to reemerge. Stories would often craft themselves in her mind before she even realized they were happening. Stories of heroism and redemption, love and freedom. Other times, when it was sunny, she would sit in front of the window with her eyes closed and pretend that she and Shawn were relaxing along the Thames, eating a dipped cone after a full day of site seeing. If she thought hard enough, it almost felt real.

But imagination could only satiate her for so long before memories of Barney's began to resurface in her mind even as she tried to forget; a feat that was nearly impossible considering the clothes that still hung in her wardrobe. And every time she got dressed, she was nearly brought to tears.

It took her a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dark green wall in front of her as she remained still under the blanket. It was the sounds of a key in the lock that forced her upright in bed with a tired sigh. She was always tired these days.

When the Joker finally entered the room, plate in hand, she was sitting cross legged on the bed, the comforter still covering her lap and her back against the wall. Her shoulders drooped helplessly as her eyes glanced up at the tall figure blankly. She tried to avoid looking at him for extended periods of times less he mistook her curiosity for glaring, but sometimes, she couldn't help it.

His eyes quickly rolled over her appearance as he entered the room with an energetic grin. "There's my favorite pet. Bright eyed and bushy tailed as usual I see." He tilted his head playfully.

Arella only pursed her lips as she looked down at the comforter, already overwhelmed by his energy which was such a sharp contrast to the silence that she normally spent the day in.

He quickly ignored her lack of response, crossing the room in a few quick steps and flopping down onto the bed next to her. Letting his legs hang lazily off of the side of the bed, he tossed the plate carelessly into her lap.

"You would not _believe _the night I've had." He grinned casually, letting his green tinted hair fall over his face.

She gasped, quickly grabbing the sides of the plate before the contents had a chance to slide off onto the blanket. It looked like she was having pasta again tonight. It seemed to be a favorite of whoever it was that did the cooking around here. She supposed it was easy to make for the large groups of men she assumed he had around the building. He ignored her movement, continuing his conversation as she picked up the plastic fork, beginning to eat silently.

"You see, the boys and I are minding our business, heading to a meeting with Maroni and his men by the docks to set up an-ah…explosive deal." He waved his hands around excitedly before laughing.

"Ma_roni_. It's like these so called 'criminals' never learn." He licked his lips before looking over at her. "Do I look like the type of guy you'd trust with a _plan_?"

She looked up at him, swallowing slowly. He seemed to enjoy telling her all of the details of his nights out, especially the more gruesome ones. Mostly she tried to ignore him, but right now, he wanted a response and though she hated these conversations, she'd take the Joker's company over no company at all right now. So she acquiesced to his prodding, to her dismay.

"No?" She replied uncertainly.

"_No_." He smirked before continuing the story before he had gone on his tangent. "So we're driving along, minding our own business, when we get pulled over by one of Gotham's finest. Well, we didn't really have time to be held up, so you wanna know what we did to him?" He smirked, moving closer to her excitedly.

"You shot him." She said, trying to hide the bitterness of her voice behind another forkful of pasta.

"Oh ." He grinned, his voice lowering to an excited hum. "Where's the fun in that? No. I planted him somewhere in Gotham . You see, I want to know how long it'll take to find him _without_ my help."

She looked up slightly, looking over his outfit as a sense of dread came over her. "You're going to blow him up. Like Harvey Dent." She said barely above a whisper.

"Am I?" He smirked.

"You smell like gun powder."

A chuckle escaped his lips as he leaned closer to her ear, almost touching them with his lips causing her to stiffen. "I do _love _how observant you are." He growled.

A wave of nausea came over her. The smell of death and gunpowder were overpowering and combined with the uncomfortable closeness, she was quickly losing her appetite.

"But no. I'm _not _going to blow him up. Not if they can find him in time. And let's hope for the sake of his twins they do. I do_ hate_ to see children growing up without a father." He gave a sympathetic frown, leaning away as he stare at her, taking in her horrified reaction.

Her mouth opened slightly in a gasp, staring at him with unbelieving wide eyes. He always seemed to surprise her with his sadistic level of apathy, but this was almost too much.

"Then let him go. What's the point?" She begged. "He hasn't done anything to you."

"I _know. _Some people are just unlucky." He gave a careless shrug, smiling as if what he was talking about was no big deal.

"You don't have to do it." She tried to reason with him. It was useless, but she couldn't help herself.

He laughed. "Oh but I do. I've always been a man of my _word_."

She pursed her lips, staring at him for another moment before giving up, turning back around to her plate of food and poking at the noodles as she could feel tears filling in her eyes. She felt completely helpless not being able to help the people that the Joker would detail to her almost every night. That was if he was always telling the truth. She never could tell. If he was however, she also realized that his openness with her meant that he didn't care about whether or not she could turn on him. She would never get the chance to because she was never leaving him alive. Finally, her lips turned into an actual frown despite the blank look she had grown accustomed to putting forth.

"You're disgusting." She finally slipped, her voice barely above a whisper.

There was a short, uncomfortable silence before she felt the bed move with the Joker's weight pulling him to a standing position. Immediately, her frown disappeared as she looked up desperately.

"No!" She said quickly, pushing the plate off of her lap. "I'm sorry, please don't go."

He didn't reply, glancing over his shoulder at her with a frown before heading to the door.

"I said stop!" She yelled at him angrily, climbing off of the bed and rushing forward to the door. "Don't leave me here. You can't keep leaving me here!" She shouted, reaching the door at the same time that he pulled it shut behind him.

She let out an angry scream, kicking the door repeatedly with all her might. It would probably piss him off, but she didn't care right now. All of her anger was boiling over in that moment and she just wanted to see him as angry as she was.

After kicking the door for the tenth time, she gave a frustrated growl, storming over to the wardrobe next to her and beginning to yank the clothes off of the hangers throwing them across the room in hopes that it would help her release some of the anger.

With each article she threw harder, imagining that they were weapons and she was throwing them at the Joker. To her dismay, instead of hitting the floor with satisfying thuds, the sheer fabrics and lightweight cotton floated to the ground as if mocking her attempts. Laughing at her pathetic tantrum just as the Joker would. Just as he always did.

With another growl, she took a couple of steps to the side, sliding her fingers around the back of the heavy wardrobe and pulling. She grunted, pulling harder until she was finally rewarded with the sound of wood scraping across wood for a few inches. Letting out a gasp of exhaustion she moved closer to the back of the large piece and pushed now, gaining a little over a foot. And when, finally, she could slip her entire body between the wardrobe and the wall, she did, pressing her hands against the back and using the sturdy wall for leverage to finally push the entire piece forward, watching it with glee as it rushed to the floor face down.

The loud crash that emitted shook the walls and sent vibrations up her spine that were finally enough to make her grin, staring at the piece of furniture with pure happiness, feeling like she had finally defeated it. It wasn't the Joker, but it would do for now.

Her eyes flicked over to the items of clothing on the floor and she smiled again. Flopping down against the back of the wardrobe and crossing her legs in front of her even as the wood groaned in protest. She reached forward, grabbing the closest item of clothing and locating the seam, digging her nails into the small stitches without hesitation and ripping it apart before tossing it aside and turning to the next. Each tearing sound soothed her and the destruction of each article made her feel a little more powerful. Try as he might, the Joker couldn't control everything, and for this brief moment, only what she wanted mattered.

So entranced was she by the systematic destruction of the expensive clothes that she had long pined for that she didn't even bother to look up when she heard the door slam open again, hitting the wall behind it with a slam. She knew who was standing there, and she knew he'd be fuming, but she continued tearing the piece in her hand. She wasn't stopping unless she was stopped by force. If he wanted to stand there and seethe then let him.

The Joker had no issue with using force, however. Glancing around the destroyed room, he began to shake with anger; his eyes coming to a rest on her back as she completely ignored him, sitting atop the ruined dresser. Letting out a primal growl, he stormed forward and reeled back, slapping her hard across the cheeks. So hard that she nearly fell off of the wardrobe with a surprised yelp.

She caught herself though, turning to look over her shoulder with a glare as she began to breath heavily. It had hurt, she'd be lying if she tried to say it didn't, but she was still angry, and running completely on adrenaline. Weeks of being left alone had left her impervious to whatever pain he could dish out. At least he was paying attention now. For once, she was getting what she wanted, even if the price could be deadly. She finally smiled.

"What, no sense of humor all of a sudden?" She taunted, knowing that she was walking on a slippery slope now.

He replied with a yank to her hair, pulling her body up closer to him as he knelt, his voice barely containing the shaky anger. All lyrical notes had disappeared and all that was left was a gravelly low tone.

"Just so you know, when the time comes…I'm going to enjoy killing you."

She gave a dismissive scoff, straining against his hand with difficulty as her breath came raggedly. "Sure. When the time comes. Why not just go ahead and do it, if you're so excited?"

"Because there are so many things that are _so_ much worse than death. And we have as long as I want."

"Keep it up and I'm going to start to think you're all talk, Joker." She smiled again. She knew it angered him. And she loved it. It became obvious to her in that moment, that she was completely losing her mind. It was never a good idea to taunt the Joker. He had proven that time and time again to wayward reporters, overzealous cops, and all the citizens of Gotham. For a moment, her smile faltered as she began to consider the repercussions of her rash actions.

There was a long uncomfortable silence as the Joker simply stare at her, his dark orbs flaming with murder and hers rapidly fluctuating between fear and defiance. After a long moment, the Joker finally released her with a shove. Letting out a low growl before standing up straight and storming out of the room without a word, slamming the door behind him.

Arella stare at the closed door nervously for a long while, not moving from her spot atop the wardrobe. She was waiting for him to come back and make her pay for her brief protest. But as the minutes stretched with no change, a strange thought crossed her mind. She had won. Maybe he would retaliate later, and probably harder, but for now, she had won. With a nervous smile, she climbed off of the wardrobe and into her bed, drifting into a much needed sleep.

* * *

**A/N: Let me know what you guys think! Good reviews make for better writing and I love reading them. Plus, it always makes a writer want to get chapters out faster. Thanks for reading so far; you guys rock!**


	7. Chapter 7

****Hey guys! Thanks for reading so far and hope you enjoy Chapter 7. Still playing with the spacing so really, let me know what you think!****

A month later, back inside the city of Gotham, the Joker was pacing around Arella's apartment looking through the cell phone that he had snagged from her purse all those weeks ago while two of his goons looked on silently, awaiting his command. He was looking for something, anything that could help with his plan. While her will to fight him was steadily being broken down, to his utter amusement, he had quickly realized after her last outburst that, left unchecked, she would possibly become more and more destructive as she slowly realized that the only person she had to worry about was herself. And if he wanted to keep having fun, that was going to have to change. Her outbursts needed to be controlled, or one day he might slip.

The list of phone calls and messages revealed little about her personal life aside from the errands and appointments she had needed to do for work. There were no long standing college friends, no old boyfriends, no friends outside of the museum he had already blown up except for this Shawn fellow, and he already had men hunting him down. The relative solitude that she had already been living her life in before him was fascinating. She was like a ghost, and it was no wonder that she had seemed perfectly resistant to his forced solitude for the first week. It probably would have been longer if he had allowed her any form of entertainment. But still, he needed more. His goons had trashed the place pretty good their first run through, grabbing whatever they thought was important, but he never could trust them to do a thorough job. He was going to find more information. More material that he could use to twist her, to make her believe he had control over every aspect of her life. A feat that he planned on accomplishing very soon.

As he scrolled through the last of her text messages for the second time and turned up nothing, he gave an annoyed grunt, tossing the entire device into the garbage disposal and flicking on the switch, smiling as the phone clinked around for a few seconds before jamming the contraption. Immediately returning to his bored state as the sink whirred in protest behind him, he began to pace again. Pulling a knife out of his pocket idly, he scratched the back of his neck as he headed to the bedroom to look around, stepping over the empty drawers tossed on the floor and the mess of useless papers carelessly scattered about. The goons followed wordlessly, they had learned long ago not to speak unless spoken too, especially when the Joker was thinking.

Immediately he noticed the litter box near the corner and raised his brow curiously. He hadn't seen or heard a cat upon entering. He wasn't particularly fond of the creatures and would have noticed immediately. But maybe she was fond of the beast.

"Where's the cat?" He grumbled to the men behind him.

"Cat, boss?" The first one questioned, confused.

"Yes. The _cat." _He gestured to the litter box impatiently.

"There weren't no cat, boss. Not even last week." He said shakily.

The Joker was quiet, making a mental note to find it as well before continuing his search, turning up his nose at the expensive looking quilt thrown over the bed and the bright floral curtains fluttering over the vent. Everything had been meticulously decorated and coordinated to make a sort of oasis that reflected her desire to stay indoors. It was sickening. To his left, his eyes paused on a small painting hanging on the wall innocuously near the door. It wasn't the first one he had seen in the apartment, but as he squinted at the heavily applied brush strokes, he realized that this one, and probably most of the others were all done by hand. Her hand, according to the signature on the bottom.

A loud laugh escaped his lips as he stood back from it, startling the two behind him. He wasn't sure why he hadn't thought of this before considering he had found her in her museum studio. Of _course_ she was an artist. And being a self-described artist himself, he immediately understood the kind of attachment she would have to her work. With a satisfied smirk, he turned to the goons.

"Looks like we found something good boys." He put his arms around the two of them.

"The paintings? Ya think they're worth somethin' boss?"

"Well that depends on who you ask, hmm? I want 'em all. Not a scratch, ya got that?" He ordered as his cell phone began to ring.

"Got it boss." The goons started off to begin the task at hand as the Joker pulled the cell phone from his pocket, placing it to his ear without a word.

"We got the address, boss." Came a voice on the other end.

With a smile, the Joker hung up, giving the men one last glance before spinning on his heels and leaving the apartment silently through the ally fire escape. It was still early in the evening, but the apartment was on a relatively nice side of town where no self-respecting person would be found in an ally reserved solely for garbage and delivery men. Ironically, it made it that much easier to get in and out of the buildings undetected. He might as well have been taking a stroll through Gotham City Park during lunch hour. Even still, the Joker kept his knife in his fingers at the ready. He wouldn't hesitate to kill anyone who crossed his path and normally he would be excited about such a prospect, but he had other things to do today and didn't want to worry about staining his suit. Fortunately, he made it to the car without incident, starting the engine and peeling out of the ally with little regard for anyone else on the road.

The drive to the texted address took him far outside Gotham proper, to a neighborhood lined with manicured lawns and large mansions. Nothing that could hold a torch to Wayne manor, but impressive none the less. He let out a short whistle as he took it all in through the tinted windows. The view excited him. Rich guys were always so fun to play with. They had so much more to lose than most.

Finally, after almost 30 minutes of driving, the Joker pulled up to the house, turning off his headlights and parking in an area hidden by bushes. After turning off the car, he dialed the number to one of his favorite henchmen who picked up after the first ring. He had instructed them to scope out the house when he found the address and knew they wouldn't be sitting too far away.

"Yea boss?"

"Time to have a little _fun._" He said with a sneer, hanging up and stretching out in the seat with a content sigh. He placed his hands behind his head as he watched out of the window. It was only a minute before he saw 3 of his familiar clown masks surround the house, waiting. He loved these moments. Watching his men obey his every command. His body was almost shaking with excitement as the men kicked in the front door, rushing inside. Finally, when he was content that his men had been given enough time to secure the area, he climbed out of the car slipping through the shadows to the door. As he climbed the front stairs, he was greeted by two sets of screams that caused an elated grin to cross his face. The more the merrier.

Rounding the corner, he paused in the entrance of the living room, taking in the curious scene. Two of the men were holding guns over the heads of a red headed man that he assumed was Shawn, and a blond headed woman next to him as they both kneeled, their eyes widening in terror as the clown entered the room. The woman was desperately holding a tiny dress against her naked body in vain while Shawn made do with cupping his hands over his manhood. They looked like teenagers who had just been caught by their parents. Both simply stare at him as he stood there for a long moment without a word, deciding where he wanted to start.

"Interrupting anything?" He grinned finally.

"Take whatever you want." Shawn said quickly. "I mean it, anything."

The Joker narrowed his eyes as he looked at the man as if he had sprouted a third eye. "Always the money with you people. No," He smiled again, beginning to walk towards the man with slow, methodical steps. "_I'm _here because I thought you might want to know how our little Ella was doing." He sucked his scars, glancing over at the blond woman next to him. "Looks like you've been ah…coping well."

Shawn's face drained of color as he stare at the madman before him. "Arella's alive?"

"Yea." He answered in a slow nasally voice.

"Oh." He said, unsure of how he was supposed to react to that information.

The Joker let out a deep chuckle. "So he does _care_ about her." He said sarcastically.

The blond tore her eyes away from the Joker to look over at Shawn, temporarily forgetting the dangerous situation that they were in. "Who's Arella?" She whispered harshly.

Shawn shushed her, not removing his eyes away from the Joker. "It's not like that. We're not even…I mean, we're just friends…kinda. And…" He tried to reason with the Joker who had since kneeled down, focusing more on the knife in his hand as Shawn's speech sped up nervously. "What do you want from me? It's not like there was anything I could do. I….I thought she was dead. I just wanted to move on."

"So soon?" He scrunched his nose judgementally at him. "That's cold."

Shawn pressed his lips together. "What do you want?"

"I just want the cat." He said simply, holding his arms up as he shrugged.

The red head looked at him, utterly shocked for a moment as if he couldn't believe what was coming from the Joker's mouth. It took him a moment before he finally came to his senses. "Well, Fuck! Take it. I don't want the damn thing anyway. I hate cats. He's…he's probably in the bedroom upstairs."

The Joker gestured to one of his men before turning back to the man in front of him.

"That fucking bitch." He breathed heavily, he looked up at the Joker angrily. "Did she tell you where I lived for a cat? Are you _kidding _me?"

The Joker laughed, "Oh, no no no. She would _never _tell me where you were. Trust me, kid, I _tried._" He gave a suggestive growl. "I…pushed and pulled and everything in between but the _problem_, was that she enjoyed it a little. Too. Much." He threw an arm around his shoulder as if they were old pals, giggling. "_You _know what I mean." He said with a squeezing the man's neck in the crook of his elbow even as he tried to pull away.

"You're disgusting." Shawn finally managed to pull away.

"Aren't we all?" He pressed his lips together with a tilt of the head, glancing over at the blond woman next to him who had since abandoned her anger with Shawn and had returned to her previously terrified state. "

Well hello, doll." He grinned moving away from Shawn and walking around to the girl, circling her.

The girl squeaked nervously and clutched the dress closer to herself as her eyes focused on the floor, afraid to look up at him.

He stopped in front of her, kneeling closer to her and studying her face causing her to lean back in fear. "Don't be _nervous._" He said finally, bending slightly to disrupt her eye line, forcing her to look at him. "You want to hear a story? Hmm? Want to hear how I got these scars?" He gestured to his face with the knife in hand.

The girl shook her head, slowly. "I didn't know he was with anyone." She said quickly. "We've only been messing around for a few months and he never said. He never-"

"Shh. Shh." He placed the knife against her lips in order to shush her. "It's okay, I _believe _you." He removed the knife, placing a hand on the back of her neck and forcing her to look at Shawn. "Guys are real jerks, huh?" He said jokingly.

Her breath began to shudder, unsure of what to say.

"Found it, Boss." Came a call from the doorway.

The Joker glanced behind him to see his man holding the overweight cat under his arm. Louie's legs stuck out awkwardly as he blanked slowly, uninterested in what was transpiring unlike the two kneeling on the floor.

The Joker grinned, imaging her face when she saw the beast. Just having the cat would cause her to fear for Shawn's life. Now he didn't actually even need the man alive, and that excited him. It had been days since he and his knives had a good night out. And he was going to enjoy this before heading back home. With a dark chuckle, he turned back to the girl in his grip.

"Why don't you run along, hmm? Shawn and I need to have a little man to man talk." He said with an excited grin, removing a hand from her neck.

The woman's head jerked up in shock as she stood there. She didn't move, not believing that the Joker was simply letting her go.

He frowned, holding the knife up closer to her, waving it. "You'd better go before I change my mind." He sang. "I can be so indecisive."

The girl didn't need another cue, without even bothering to put the dress in her hands over her body she ran as fast as she could prompting a loud laugh from the Joker.

"You can wait outside, boys. I won't be long." He smiled, grabbing a large handful of Shawn's hair and yanking slightly. The men left without a word leaving the predator alone with his prey.

Later, when the police would question the nearby neighbors, all anyone could describe were faint sounds of a dying animal filling the neighborhood for hours before quieting.

_ Arella awoke again in her childhood room to the sounds of screaming she had become so normal now whenever she was there. With her face still buried in the pillow, she reached a lazy hand to the nightstand to grab her iPod before freezing. Laying there a moment before jumping up and looking around the pink tinted room to see the familiar neon sign glowing against the dirty brick wall. _

_ "No." She whispered to herself, not believing she was having this nightmare again. " .No." She whimpered, squeezing her eyes shut again as she tried desperately to wake herself up. It was useless though, it hadn't worked before and it wasn't working now. _

_ Frantic eyes searched around the room as she took in her surroundings. The room was much dirtier than she remembered. School papers were fluttering around the room as if there was a gust of wind. Her eyes trailed one of them as it fell upon a basket of lemons, getting stuck for a moment before fluttering away with the others. It unnerved her for some reason, but she couldn't figure out why. Shivering from a sudden cold chill, she pulled the blankets back over her, lying down in the bed and wishing she could get out of the room. But she couldn't move. All she could do was hide. The screams were getting louder though, and as much as she tried to block them out, she was forced to lay there and listen, beginning to cry again with the pillow pressed against her ears. She was in her own personal version of hell. The hell that she had brought upon herself for doing nothing all those years. And now all of the people she had ignored where coming back to haunt her. To break her down until she felt all the pain that they did. She deserved this. She deserved to suffer. So with a heavy sigh, she closed her eyes, Simply listening as the black liquid began seeping through the corners of the ceiling again. _

When Arella finally awoke from her dream, she did so drowsily, lying completely still as she tried to shake the mental images she was still having. It had taken her much longer to leave the nightmare this time and she hoped that wasn't beginning to become a pattern. With a groan, she rose from the bed, slipping an easy pair of shoes on and padding to the bathroom sink on stiff legs. For a long moment she simply stood there, staring into the empty with a dazed gaze as her mind sped off in every direction at once. Finally, with a shake of the head she reached forward heavily and turned the faucet on to splash water on her face in an attempt to wake herself up fully. As she went back for a third handful of water, her eyes drifted up to the mirror, jarring her with an image of all fading damage that she had been trying so hard to avoid seeing.

It had now been four days since their fight and she could still make out the imprint on her cheek from where he had smacked her. The pain had since subsided, but she hated being reminded. Though she had felt a sense of triumph briefly after the altercation, that feeling was quickly snuffed out in the proceeding days. Since that night, he hadn't come by. Not to bring her food, not to chat, not to watch her. No one had. On the first night, not an hour after the argument, a tall, broad chested man had come into the room to drop off an oversized box of old MREs and an entire case of water before disappearing again. She assumed the Joker had warned him about making contact with her, because he had made painful sure to not cast a single glance at her before he disappeared. Since then, she was on her own with nothing to keep her company and nothing to entertain her.

The wardrobe still lie face down on the floor where she had pushed it and held, trapped within it, nearly all of her clean and undestroyed clothes as a taunting reminder of her outburst. As a result, she had taken to throwing on the same dress after showering out of necessity; wearing dirty clothes was better than going naked again. She had thought that life was as bad as it could have gotten in those first three weeks, but without the short interactions, the freshly prepared food, or the luxury of clean clothing, the past four days were putting her on the fast track to mental insanity. The Joker had been right, there were some things worse than death and she wasn't sure how much longer she could last like this.

With a sigh, she turned to look at the door into her bedroom, wondering how hard it would be to pick the lock. She didn't have any tools, but maybe unwrapping the cheap, wire shower curtain hooks would be helpful-if there was no deadbolt or chain on the other side. She just wanted to get out of the room for a while. Needed room felt like it was getting smaller every day and she was starting to feel like it was haunted. There were times that she thought she could hear the screams from her dreams when she was awake. But whenever she perked up to listen, they were gone, as if they'd never been there at all. The lines were starting to blur and there was nothing she could do to stop it except try to get out. The Joker would never have to know as long as she was back in her room before he returned to his.

'It can't hurt to check.' She thought to herself before tip toing over to the door, placing her ear against the heavy wood. Silence met her on the other side. There were no voices, no footfalls, and no noises to indicate anyone was out in the hall. Shaky hands found their way to the door knob. Maybe if she gave it a good jiggle, she could hear whether or not a chain was in place on the other side. Pausing for another moment, she kept her ear on the door

and shook.

To her surprise, the door swung open easily. So easily that she almost fell backwards in shock. For a long moment, she simply stood there and stared into the hallway, unable to force her feet to take the step forward.. Part of her wanted to slam the door in fear and retreat back to her room, but the dangerous mixture of curiosity and boredom eventually overpowered and propelled her forward with a hesitant step into the hallway that she hadn't seen for weeks. Looking at the giant windows across from her, it only took a moment for the fear to give way to excitement as she began to quietly explore the top floor.

Though she had yet to see the outside of the building, it quickly became clear that the hospital was huge. It was dark, but the many windows cast sufficient glow along the many hallways and empty rooms that she could explore unimpeded, entering into any open door lit enough to peek and occasionally sorting through mounds of junk for anything interesting. It seemed as if the hospital had simply been left as it was the last time it was used. Many of the rooms that she found were empty and only boasted crumbling walls, dirt, and grime as their decorations. Another room she found filled with small elementary type desks as if someone had tossed them all in there, and in another was mounds of old phonebooks, medical records, file cabinets, and empty folders. She had spent the most time in this room, looking through the records, but they were pretty standard as these things go and she quickly bored with it before moving on.

So engrossed was she with the eerie beauty of the building that it took her nearly an hour to realize that the floor was strangely quiet considering it was the headquarters of the Joker's small army. Panic began to fill her mind as she walked along the hallways. Was it possible that the Joker had left her here? Leaving the door unlocked as a joke to see how long it would take her to figure it out? She hadn't seen or heard from him in days and she wouldn't put it past him. He did seem bored with her lately. Oddly enough, the idea of being left alone in the large building unnerved her. The rooms that she had first seen as beautiful were now causing her to shake in fear. Quickly, she made her way to the large staircase that led down to the fourth floor, standing there for a long while as she tried to peer down and catch a glimpse of any signs of life. But there was nothing.

While it had originally only been her intention to explore a bit of the top floor for a short while, that fear was beginning to get the best of her. So after five minutes of debating, she began down the staircase with hesitant steps, not sure if she wanted to call out for someone, or remain silent. She still didn't want to get caught if she was wrong, but she had to know. As she made her way through much of the fourth floor, it was equally quiet. Her brows knit together as she began to panic, if she had been left here, she had no idea how to get back to Gotham, or civilization for that matter. Surely there'd be a vehicle of some sort in the garage. Her mind wandered wildly as she thought of her options, wandering aimlessly through the building. It wasn't until she heard the sound of raucous laughter from a nearby room that she was brought back to the present with a jolt, rushing to the source of the sound. When she came to the door where she heard the voices, she stood at the edge, peeking in only slightly so as not to be seen

There were at least 4 men watching playing pool on a tattered table with a television playing softly in the background. A few clown masks were strewn across a table putting her shockingly at ease. She hadn't been left here. The building was just too large to hear across floors and wings. Leaning against the wall with a relieved sigh, she took a moment to relax again before turning back towards the direction she walked from to make her way back towards the stairs. Before she could take a couple of steps, however, she felt someone grab her arm roughly, spinning her around.

Letting out a loud gasp, she recoiled away instinctively as she looked up at a man who couldn't be more than twenty or so with long scraggly hair and dangerous green eyes glaring down at her with a smirk.

"Hel-lo." He eyed her up and down, not bothering to hide his gaze.

Her mouth set into a deep frown, trying to yank her arm away to no avail. "Let go of me." She growled in a hushed tone, not wanting to alert the other men in the room. Her fear began to rise again, but it wasn't because of the man grasping her now. No. She was afraid because now the Joker would know for sure that she was out of her room. That thought terrified her more than anything.

The man only smiled, turning and dragging her into the room that she had just been peering into even as she struggled to pull away and run.

"Hey guys, look what I found hanging outside the room." He shook her arm as if he had just come back from a hunt.

The other men looked up, confused for a moment.

"Is that the Joker's bitch?" One questioned, setting the pool stick on the floor and leaning on it.

Arella turned to glare at the man, surprised by his boldness. Before she could open her mouth, the man holding her arm spoke again.

"Yea." He laughed. "Pretty little thing, huh? What do you think we should do with her?"

"I think you should put her back upstairs before the boss catches you." One of the guys turned back to the pool table.

"Hold on." A second guy set the pool cue down. "Let's think about this. She _was _trying to escape. We could just say that…we were trying to stop her."

"I wasn't trying to escape!" She shrieked at them angrily, narrowing her eyes. Mentally, she scolded herself for not trying harder to get into the wardrobe so that she could have something to wear besides the dress. Her eyes scanned the room desperately for something she could use to get out of this predicament. She knew what was at stake right now, but she was still more afraid of the Joker's reaction to her putting herself in danger. Her eyes landed on a table almost 6 feet away with a knife on it. There were guns a little further away, but there was no chance of reaching one of them. Hopefully she could distract the guys away from them as well. The door was too far away and she would have to go by another man sitting near it.

"Fuck this." The guy at the pool table threw down his cue, walking towards the door. "Get caught if you guys want, but I'm out of it. Boss won't believe that shit." He muttered, leaving the room.

Arella watched him leave, angrily, wondering why he wouldn't simply stop the situation.

"Fine Rick, It's easier with three anyway." The guy holding her arm yelled before turning to Arella, burying his face in her neck even as she pulled away. "You smell good." He growled at her.

She shrieked, pulling away from him as far as she could, using her free hand to swing a fist at his face, landing a punch squarely in his jaw causing him to let go of her briefly. She wasted no time, sprinting to the table to grab the knife. The man chased her, tackling her onto the table with his arms around her waist as the other two cheered him on, laughing. She screamed, falling forward onto her ribs hard causing a shooting pain through her abdomen. She wanted to cringe, but could see that her hand was only inches away from the knife, so she reached while trying to squirm away from the man holding her down from behind his back to the other two men as she tried to kick him.

"She's a fighter, huh?" One of the guys called, she couldn't tell which one. "No wonder the boss likes her."

"What's wrong, Jonathan. Can't handle your women? Need a real man to show you how to do it?" Another called, breaking out into raucous laughter.

Jonathan gave an angry growl, egged on by the jeers of his friends. He reached forward to grab her hair, yanking it back and earning him another scream as he managed to maneuver his legs outside of hers, pinning them together to stop her kicking, ripping at her dress with his free hand.

Arella could hardly pay attention to any of it, though. She had tunnel vision and had already decided that no matter how far he got with her, he was going to die before she did. Between her experience at the museum, dealing with the Joker for the past week, and now this, her anger was reaching a boiling point and she didn't care which one of the three she unleashed it on. With a final grunt, she used her free hand to push her forward, finally able to wrap her hands around the hilt knife and swing it behind her with an angry shriek.

The man behind her stumbled back with a pained shout, clutching his left arm even as blood seeped through before turning and looking at her, surprised as she pushed herself from the table, turning around and glaring.

"Holy shit." One of the other guys said in shock.

She didn't wait for any of them to come to their senses as she gripped the knife tighter, lunging for her attacker with another scream, as she swung the knife indiscriminately, Most of them causing superficial slashes to his forearms and hands as he tried to dodge in pain. She didn't care about escaping at the moment; all she wanted was to inflict as much pain as possible. To let out all the anger she was feeling.

"Get this crazy fucking bitch!" Jonathan gave a panicked yell to the other two who were still standing at the other corner of the room, dumbfounded. Finally, Arella felt the knife sink deep into the man's shoulder, the first penetrating shot she had managed and the first to force an actual scream of pain from his lips. It was satisfying, but she didn't stop. Again she swung, landing another blow: once in the cheek and another in the shoulder. Going down for another strike, she was shocked when a strong hand on her wrist halted her blow, twisting her arm behind her back.

Arella shrieked in anger, spinning around to attack the person who had interrupted her. She'd kill them all if she had to. It wasn't until she heard that nasally voice that she froze.

"Ah, ta ta."

****Uh oh! What do you guys think is going to happen after days of isolation? Give me your predictions!**

**Just a couple of notes if you wanna see some of the locations mentioned in the story. The hospital is an amalgamation of a few different hospitals. I've broken it up by story location below and added links or names. Obviously I don't own any of these pics but they're great. Who doesn't love some old abandoned hospital pics amiright? : **

**Exterior:Denbigh Asylum**

**5th floor windowed hallway: **

** . **

**The staircase:**

** photos/andregovia/5509374843/sizes/l/**

**Also, if you've ever wanted to know what Arella looks like in my head, check out some Isabel Correa images! She's absolutely gorgeous and I love picturing her likeness as part of the story.**

**Once again, thanks for reading. You guys are awesome! Don't forget to leave a review if you love it or hate it. I love to hear from you guys. :) *****


	8. Chapter 8

******Whoa, over 1000 readers so far! You guys are awesome. (Only 9 reviews though, :P)Thanks for sticking with me so far. Hope you like the upcoming chapter. Let me know if do! Or if you don't...you know, whatever makes you feel good. Haha ******

The nasally voice caused her head to snap over her shoulder in shock as he forced her arm above her head and wrenched the knife out of her hand. His face holding an unreadable expression as he glared at her, holding the knife lazily at his waist as if waiting. She stood up straight with her mouth agape, much like a child who had been caught sneaking in after curfew, unsure of what to do.

All of the adrenaline that had been fueling her up to that point seemed to disappear almost immediately, leaving her confused and vulnerable as the enormity of what had just happened began to settle in. What had started out as a simple, curiosity filled excursion through the top floor had gone downhill fast. And she wasn't sure how to defend herself. Dropping her hands to her side like heavy weights, she glanced up at him in an effort to explain herself. But nothing came out. Instead, she began to hyperventilate before finally breaking down into terrified tears, lowering her head. But to her surprise, he didn't yell.

"Now, now." He said in a terrifyingly calm voice, smacking his lips with a roll of the eyes. Placing a hand on her shoulder he pulled her closer to him and tucked her crying face under his arm before taking in the scene around him with a frown. The only sound that filling the room being Jonathan's screams and her sobs.

She knew that there wasn't a chance that she would get off this easy. Not after the last interaction they had. And not after she had deliberately disobeyed him. Even through her tears, she was painfully aware of the knife in his hand as it lightly grazed her shoulder. He might kill her right now, but if he did, she didn't want to see it coming.

The Joker let out a grunt as he looked from face to guilty face, smacking his lips again as his left arm rested on her shoulder absentmindedly. Pulling a gun from his right pocket, he didn't even bother looking over as he quickly fired three shots at the screaming man on the floor, forcing a yelp from Arella before the room was silent. He tossed the gun aside before turning to the other two.

"She was trying to escape boss." One of the men blurted out, having finally found his voice.

The Joker seemed to ignore the man for a moment, his expression still flat while he glanced around once more before using his grip on her shoulder to pull her away from the nook of his arm slightly. He looked down at her tear stained face, tilting his head slightly

"That true, dollface?" He questioned in a low voice.

She shook her head rapidly, still crying hysterically as she kept her eyes trained on his even though she was dying to look away.

"I wasn't. I swear I wasn't. I was just exploring and I thought you left me here and they…" She chocked on her words. "They tried to…" Her voice failed her as the Joker's penetrating gaze studied her, chewing his scars as he thought.

"She's lying boss." The man shouted desperately.

Out of nowhere, the Joker let out a laugh, turning to the man who was staring at them both in fear. "Then you boys should be _very _disappointed in your job performance." His arm released the crying girl with a slight shove, taking a step forward as he began to slowly and deliberately shrug himself out of his purple jacket. "I mean, _look_ at her." He giggled, turning to Arella and tossing his coat at her. "Cover yourself, dollface."

Arella caught it, but just barely. Almost shocked for a moment as she held the foreign object away from her body. Unsure of whether she wanted to put it on or not. But she quickly realized that it hadn't been a question. Wrapping it around herself slowly, her eyes drifting over her shoulder to find two more goons by the door, glancing at her accusingly. She quickly turned away, looking at the ground as the Joker continued. The tension in the room was mounting and it rendered everyone in the room deathly silent. Everyone except the Joker.

"How do you think-ah it makes _me _look when my men can't handle one. _Tiny_. Woman. Between the three of them?" The Joker was practically shaking with anger as he closed in on the man, the knife he had pulled away from Arella still in one hand as he gestured wildly with the other.

"She-"

Before the man could get the words out, the Joker let out a growl and buried the knife hilt deep in the man's neck, seemingly nicking an artery judging by the amount of blood. Yanking the knife out of his body with a splattering of the red liquid flying across the room, he grabbed the second man by the neck before he could run off.

"_Ella." _He started, not looking behind him as he forced the man to his knees. "Come here, sweetheart."

It was a call that, even in his musical tone, was clearly an order and not a request. She felt her stomach drop, wanting to run away, to block out all the blood in the room, but she knew that to disobey him now was to have a death wish. Maybe he would go easy on her if she listened. With a heavy sigh, she forced herself to move forward, wiping her wet cheeks as she neared him. The Joker stepped behind the man on his knees, holding the bloody knife out to her, hilt first.

Suddenly, she realized what it was he wanted her to do. But her adrenaline had long disappeared; she couldn't handle that at the moment, not in her current state. The Joker only narrowed his eyes at her as she hesitated, his voice lowering to a dangerous low.

"Don't. make. Me. _Chase_ you." He enunciated each word, not removing his eyes from her own.

She gasped, closing the chasm between them with a couple more steps as if she was walking through mud. Taking the knife slowly, she stood over the man as the Joker grabbed the man's hair, tilting his head back to give her a clear view.

"Now." He continued, speaking to the man. "Why don't you _apologize_ to our guest?"

The man looked up at her desperately, beginning to beg. "I'm sorry. Christ, I'm sorry! I wasn't going to do anything to you, I swear. It was all Jonathan."

As he spoke, Arella could feel her anger rising again as he spouted off all of the sorry excuses he could think of. "Why didn't you stop him?" She questioned softly, her voice shaking.

"I couldn't think. I should have but I didn't know how. You gotta understand, it's been a long time since we've had a woman here and in that dress, I-"

She couldn't help but wonder how many other women he had taken while he was out doing for the jobs for the Joker. It drove her crazy as she thought back to the woman in the alley, and all of those who screamed afterwards. Without warning, she finally shut her eyes and brought the knife down with a short scream, burying it in his body. She wasn't sure where. The heartbeat pounding in her hear clouded her hearing and she didn't open her eyes until she turned on her heels, storming towards the doorway where the two goons were still blocking her exit holding two large guns. She didn't care. Without so much as a second glance, she pushed past them and all but ran back to her room, slamming the door behind her and falling on the floor against her bed, breaking down into hysterical tears again.

She wasn't sure how long she stayed on the floor, curled up in a ball in front of the bed with only the moonlight from the nearby window to illuminate the dark room. In just a few minutes, she had gone from bright eyed explorer to murderer. She was no better than the men in Joker's army. No better than the Joker. And in her mind there was no way to rectify that thought. She was a killer, and she wanted to die.

Eventually though, over the sound of her sobs, the front door creaked open, shutting with a rattle. Her arm remained draped in front of her eyes as she desperately tried to wipe the visions of blood from her mind. She instantly knew it was the Joker who had walked in from the sound of his heavy footsteps but nothing could make her bothered enough to care. He was probably still angry at her if he thought she was trying to escape and for causing him to kill three of his men and nothing could make her want to deal with him tonight. Not now. The way his body shook with anger in the room downstairs told her that it was not something he was going to let go easily. She was going to pay for it, and for once, she didn't care. She didn't bother to move away from him or to protect herself. If he wanted to attack her she would take it quietly because, in her own mind, she deserved it. Part of her wanted it, anything to distract herself from the thoughts swirling around in her head for a while.

As the footsteps came to a stop, she could feel his presence hovering over her and she could tell that he was staring at her, thinking. With the sounds of shuffling, she finally heard him let out an angry growl, grabbing her arm and lifting upper body from the floor before letting it fall again, her head on something soft.

Arella finally removed her arm from her eyes to figure out what was going to as she chocked on her tears. Her body was still on the floor but her head lay on something much softer and…purple. Her eyes shifted to the Joker's shoe in her line of vision before she realized that he had taken a seat on the floor, his legs splayed in either side of her, laid her head on his thigh, and his hand on her side. The thought unnerved her momentarily and she whimpered, trying to move away from him but the pressure from the hand on her side increased, forcing her to lie still. Panic filled her mind as she tried harder to pull away. The idea of being this near to the man who had just forced her to stab another and could very well kill her right now terrified her. But the harder she tried to slide away, the harder he pressed.

Finally, her brief moment of strength dissipated and her body relaxed as she continued to cry. The pressure on her back eased as well and as she sat there for a long moment, a surprising realization came over her.

The Joker was trying to comfort her.

She lay there in shock, unsure of what to do as her sobs began to quiet. Even when she was a child, her grandmother hadn't been a very touchy woman and she had quickly learned how to comfort herself in situations that affected her negatively. As a result, she had a tendency to be somewhat standoffish and though Shawn had managed to get her to open a little, even he hadn't had to deal with her emotional side. And she hated that the first person to be privy to it was him. She hated him, even more now for forcing her into this state and then intruding on her private moment. She had learned early to hide her emotions and she was good at it. But now, there was nowhere to disappear to and all she could do was deal with it.

Above her, the Joker stare down with a frown spread across his face. He wanted to move the hand from her back and slap it out of her. It's what he'd do to any of his men, if he didn't kill them first. But he resisted. He wanted her to trust him if he ever planned on forcing her to kill again. And he did. Walking in on her madly driving a knife repeatedly into the face and shoulders of one of his men had been one of the most exciting things he had seen in a long time. Part of him had wanted to let her finish the job, but the anger that quickly boiled up overtook him and made him want to finish the action himself. And when killing the first two hadn't satiated him, he decided to force her to kill the third as punishment for both her and the incompetent man. He did go _so _easy on her.

Finally, after 5 minutes, her tears had abated and she lay there silently, not moving, simply staring out of the window in front of her blankly. While she still felt horrible about killing a man, what scared her the most was that she felt no sympathy for the man, only herself. When had she become so selfish? The question answered itself though and she lowered her lids for a moment with a sigh. She hated to admit it, but the Joker's thigh wasn't terribly uncomfortable. Compared to the floor at least. She would much prefer her bed. Out of the blue, a thought formed in her mind. One that would maybe make her feel better. Slowly, she rolled over on her back to look up at the Joker who's expression was difficult to make out in the dark room. His eyes simply looked like black pits and his face was blank as he moved his hand away from her shifting back and place it onto his opposite leg.

Moistening her lips, she took a deep breath before asking. "Did I kill him?" her voice cracked, still sore from crying so much.

A low chuckle emitted from his chest telling her everything she needed to know, and with another sigh, she began to roll back over on her side away from him before his gloved hand moved to her chin, forcing her to face him again.

Nervous eyes looked up at him as he did. It had been a long time since he had been rough with her, and though the grip on her chin wasn't painful, it was certainly uncomfortable. A strange silence passed through the room as he studied her, thinking. She remained perfectly still, unsure of what to do but knowing that pulling away would surely cause him to attack her.

Finally, with a last final suck of his cheeks, the Joker leaned down closer to her face, gripping her chin tightly.

"So." He started in a low, somewhat gravelly voice. "Tell Joker. _Where_ you trying to escape?" He tilted his head to study her face as he waited for an answer.

As her head shook no, she was happy that it was actually the truth. With the look on his face right now, and after what had gone down just a little before, she didn't think she'd have enough sanity left to lie to him right now. That was probably his intent, though.

"Then what _were_ you doing, hmm?" His voice still low. She was also pretty sure that he hadn't blinked the whole time.

"I was bored." Came her soft reply, suddenly realizing how ridiculous that sounded.

He didn't reply, still staring at her. She took that as an indication to continue.

"And…I realized that the door was unlocked so…I went…exploring. I just wanted to see something besides these four walls and…I was going to just stay on the fifth floor. I did stay on the fifth floor for a long time but…" She was aware that she was rambling now, but she didn't care, she had spent nearly a month with no one to talk to and she wanted to get as much out in this one conversation as she could. "It was quiet. So quiet and I started to think that…you had just cleared out and left me here. So I went looking for some sign that…I wasn't here alone. And that's when…." Her voice trailed away as she tried to forget about the events that followed.

The Joker was quiet for a long moment before bursting into hysterical laughter, slapping his knee. The movement was jarring and forced Arella into a seated position, pulling her knees to her chest again as she still sat between his knees, afraid to move much further.

"You thought I disappeared and just _left_ you here?" He wheezed. "Oh trust me cupcake, I would never leave you here. Not _alive _anyway."

She was silent, staring at her hands. It was surprising how his comments barely fazed her anymore. She simply picked at the frayed edges of her dress, Inching away from him slightly. "I killed that man." She continued softly, not looking up.

"Oh yes. You. Did." He said with another chuckle. "And Jonathan…hmm." He gave a happy hum. "Tell me, how did _that_ feel?"

"I don't know." She said softly, still not looking up at him.

"Oh yes you do." He smiled, drawing up his knees from around her and crawling over to sit next to her with his legs splayed out in front of him as he leaned closer to her. "A girl like you…just out minding her own business and these _barbaric_ men try to take from you the _last _shred of dignity you have left by _force_." He growled the last word at her. "And I can promise you, you weren't the first, and you wouldn't have been that last. How did it feel to save the lives of _all_ those other women? To get revenge? Hmm?" He grinned, his face only inches from hers as she cast him a brief sideways glance.

Her face still stayed turned away from him as the thought worked over in her mind. She had to admit that she hadn't thought about it that way, and it made her feel slightly better. It was like he knew the answer to all the nightmares she had at night. As if he knew that she had them. Maybe she did save someone's life; prevented another unknown woman from being viciously assaulted in an alley. And though it was only speculation, if that was the case, she could live with it.

"Don't you care about the lives of your own men?" She questioned with a snarky tone, turning to look at him accusingly.

He only cackled. "Oh come now. Do I look like a guy that cares about _anyone_ but himself?" He pressed his lips together. "Besides, I _don't-ah_ like to _share._"

Her brows furrowed as she looked at him, giving a confused shake of the head. "Share?"

His smile broadened to a point where it looked like his scars would tear open again as he stared at her dangerously. "_You_ are _mine_." He said, baring his teeth at her. "Everything that you are. Everything that you _will _be is mine. And anyone who tries to take my _things_ away from me will suffer. Even _you_."

Her eyes narrowed at him as each of his words hit her. She knew that they were true, whether she liked them or not, but that didn't mean she had to accept them.

"I'm not your plaything." She growled angrily.

"Oh but you are. You _really _are." He said with a smile. "And if I _ever_ catch you trying to run away…."

Arella jumped as she felt something cold against her thigh. A glance down and she saw the Joker's knife tracing her leg gently, its shiny surface reflecting in the moonlight occasionally to reveal darkening red stains still covering it. She shuddered forcing herself to turn away from the knife and face the window though her brows still knitted together angrily.

Reaching a hand up to her neck, he brushed her hair aside, lacing his gloved fingers into the thick strands at her nape and gripping it tightly, ignoring her wince.

"You should be _happy_." He said with false concern. "Now, the only thing you have to fear in the world...is _me_."

"Just like every other person in Gotham." She muttered, trying to pull her hair out of his grip but only being rewarded with a hard yank.

"_No_. You're not like every other person. Because I _like _you."

"You can't keep me here forever."

"I don't intend to." He said lowly, his breath warm on her neck

She hated how casual he was about the want to kill her. Like she was nothing. So she changed the subject. Anxious to keep him talking because even though he thrived on terrorizing her, she had no one else to talk to and was in no mood to be left alone tonight.

"I mean….in this room." Her eyes turned to him as she reached back, finally pulling his hand from her hair with little resistance. "I can't stay in here all day by myself. I can't."

He studied her for a long moment, smacking his lips before pulling away with a grin. "Oh alright. You know that I can't say no to you." He grabbed her chin and shook it roughly.

She grimaced, pushing away from him as he laughed.

"I'll leave the door unlocked just like it always _has_ been. But you know what happens if you leave this floor. I might not go so _easy _on you next time."

She nodded, surprised it had been that easy to get him to agree. She considered yelling at him about tricking her with the door but quickly decided against it "I won't."

"I _know._" He pulled away from her finally, looking her over for a long moment as he began to laugh to himself.

Arella glanced at him annoyed as he continued. Stopping every now and then before looking at her and bursting into a new round of laughter. She could tell he wanted her to question why he was laughing, and as hard as she tried to ignore him, she knew he wouldn't stop until she did. Finally she gave an annoyed growl.

"What the hell are you laughing at?" She yelled at him.

"Oh, you should _see _yourself." He said excitedly before standing, grabbing her arm and pulling her off the floor impatiently. "Come on, come on, comeon. This is going to be a _hoot_."

She followed him with a roll of the eye. Of course he was going to rub in how crazy she looked right now. It probably would have surprised her if he didn't.

He pulled her into the bathroom, flicking on the light and stopping in front of the mirror, pulling her in front of him and placing his hands on her shoulders. With a giant grin he slid the purple jacket from her shoulders so that she could take it all in.

"Ta-da." He said in a softer voice, tossing the jacket aside and placing his hands on her shoulders again.

Arella's eyes widened in shock, she hadn't realized that she had been hit with any blood, much less the almost unbelievable amount that was splattered across her face, hair, hands, and arms. She looked an absolute wreck. Her dress was barely covering much as it hang off of her shoulders and though it was difficult to see in the dim lighting, the feel of wetness against her stomach told her that the thin black fabric also had a generous amount of blood on it. Had she nicked an artery at some point? She didn't remember being hit with blood but it had all been a blur anyway. There was probably a lot of things she didn't realize. She tried to utter a sound before she reached up instead, trying to desperately rub the blood off of her arms.

"Ah ta, ta." He grabbed her arms, forcing them back down at her sides as he towered nearly a head over her even as he slouched. "Look at yourself." He said with a low, gravelly voice. "You look…dangerous…frightening…_ravishing_" He said the last word with a growl, resting his chin on her head as his gloved hands traveled slowly down her arms, Hos dirty green curls brushing the top of her head as his intimidating figure nearly engulfed her own.

She didn't reply, barely listening to him as she took in her appearance. She did look absolutely terrifying, which seemed fitting considering where she was being held. If anyone had seen her through the window walking around the halls they would have certainly ran in terror. Her eyes drifted up to the Joker's reflection behind her and she was instantly taken aback by the absolute glee in his eye. She had never seen him look at her this way. His glances were always tempered with anger, boredom, or mild amusement, but not this time. No, for once, he was impressed.

"I look crazy." She replied finally, barely above a whisper.

"No you don't-ah." His face turned serious for a split second before the smile crept back along his face. "_Crazy _is just a word for people they can't stuff into a pigeon hole. That they can't _understand._ People like _us-ah." _He said the last part in a low voice, close to her ear.

"I'm not like you."

"Yes. You. _Are." _He sang. "All either of us wants is for things to be _fair. _Hmm? We just have different methods. _You_ want to be the hero." His hands covered her own, causing a shudder through her body as she felt something hard press into her palm before his hands wrapped around hers, forcing it closed around the foreign object, his tongue darting out to lick his lips in barely contained excitement. "You see, I _know_ why you wake up crying. I know about all. That. anger. you've been holding in."

He lifting her hand, revealing the knife that he had slid into her hand. The same one that she had used earlier to attack Jonathan that had since been wiped down to a sheen. "I can help you _use _that anger to..." His hand rotated hers slowly, so that the knife reflected the light of the lamp above. "Restore the balance that you crave." He murmured into her ear before letting her go, stepping aside so that she was only looking at herself in the mirror.

Her eyes drifted to the knife, staring at it intently before turning back to the reflection in the mirror, taking in the full vision before her. With the knife in hand, she had to admit that she looked like she could take on anyone in Gotham. If she caught them by surprise at least. It didn't hurt either for the Joker to have her back. Her mind briefly wandered back to the knife in her hand. She wondered if she could move fast enough to attack the Joker like she had earlier. But she didn't have to even glance over to know that he would be watching her intently and would be awaiting her reaction. No, now wouldn't be the time. Even still, it was like her read her mind.

"Now before you do anything _Stupid_, don't forget that you won't get down to the first floor alive without me." A grin spread across his face as he leaned against the wall, his arms crossed.

She cast him a sideways glance before rolling her eyes slightly, turning back to the mirror. Part of her wanted to tell him to shut up, but she wasn't that bold just yet. With a sigh, she leaned on the sink in front of her as she thought, tossing the knife into the basin and staring at it for a moment as if she had never seen it before. After a moment, she looked back up at him with a scrunch of the nose. "How do you know about my dreams?"

He grinned again "You are…an open book when you sleep."

"You've been watching me sleep?" She narrowed her eyes at him with a frown.

"You're lucky I didn't do more than that." He lowered his voice, moving behind her again, sliding his hands down her waist causing her to gasp and stand up straight, starting to pull away from him but quickly realizing that she was pinned between him and the sink. "You have no _idea_ the things I've pictured doing to this…" his hands lowered from her waist, sliding between them down to her backside before giving it a firm squeeze. "tight-ah ass of yours." He finished, growling in her ear.

She squeezed her eyes shut, gripping the sink hard enough to turn her knuckles white as she remained perfectly still, wishing she hadn't brought up the question. The Joker's mood seemed all over the place tonight and she wasn't sure what kind of reaction moving would bring. Dealing with his goons was one thing, but she knew that she wouldn't have the same luck here.

"You'd be _begging _for more." He finished, his tongue tracing a thin line up the back of her neck as her breath hitched in her throat. His lips turned into upwards into a smirk before he reached forward, picking up the knife from the sink and leaning away from her.

"Go take a shower." He gave her butt a final smack before heading towards the doorway. "We have a _big_ day tomorrow."

Arella finally opened her eyes, still gripping the sink as she tried to control her breathing watching him disappear through the door. When it finally shut behind him, she let out a relieved sigh, wondering what it was that he meant. But with a quick shake of the head, she tried to not think about it. She only wanted to try and get some rest before she had to deal with whatever he had planned for the next day.

It took her hours to finally get to sleep. Dwelling on all that had happened that night. After spending the last month in what felt very much like solitary confinement, she had already felt as if she was teetering on the edge of sanity and having so many traumatic events and emotions thrown at her all at once tonight was almost too much too handle. She couldn't help but wonder how the night would have ended if she had been left in the room by herself to deal with it all. She wouldn't say that she was grateful to the Joker. Not even close. Part of her wanted to die, but she didn't have the motivation to do so tonight. Not anymore. Instead, she finally drifted off, hoping that she could make it another day.

The feeling of light pressure against her side awoke her in the morning. Instinctually, she brushed the object away with a groan, rolling over and burying her head in the pillow again. It wasn't until the pressure shifted near her head that she heard the sound of loud purring and the feel of a small head nudging her arm that her eyes yanked open, staring at the fat cat in front of her with wide, unbelieving eyes.

"Louie." She said softly, sitting up and wrapping her arms around the creature, cuddling him close to her for dear life. The cat seemed annoyed by the movement as he struggled to slide out of her grasp with an impatient meow, but it didn't faze her as she stroked the cat's head with a wide smile, simply happy to see him.

"Ah…you're _wel_come." Came a nasally voice by the door.

Her back stiffened for a long moment before she turned to see the Joker leaning against the wall behind her. Seeing him filled her with a dreadful realization.

"What did you do?" She questioned accusingly, her hand still on Louie's head.

"I brought you a _friend_." He said with a smirk, sucking his scars. "And here I thought you'd be more _grate_ful."

"What did you do to Shawn?" Her breath began to quicken in anger.

He laughed, holding his hands up defensively. "Calm down, sweet cheeks. He's alive. I just went for the cat." It wasn't a complete lie. Shawn was alive when the Joker left him, but just barely. He had decided only a moment before slicing the man's throat that it'd be better to have him as a backup plan.

"Why?" She questioned, the deep frown not leaving her face. The Joker never did anything nice without a reason, and this was just nice enough to make her worry.

"_Why?_" He frowned, tilting his head as if hurt, placing his hands over his heart. "Your words wound me. Can't I just do something nice for my _favorite _toy? You've been a good girl."

"No." She replied simply, not in the mood for his games.

He laughed dropping the act. "Well, you caught me." He walked over to the bed, flopping down on the edge and brushing both the blanket and cat off of it with a grunt before forcing her legs atop his lap, moving closer to her.

Arella didn't bother to pull away. For the most part, she had gotten used to his boundary issues and had learned that he got even more enjoyment when she fought against them.

"I just wanted to meet this…Shawn…that you _kept_ _writing_ about." He started, gesturing wildly with one hand as the other stroked her bare legs idly. "And if you want my opinion. I think you can do better." His nose scrunched in the way it normally did when he was being judgemental.

"What the hell do you know?" She spat out before quickly lowering her eyes, not expecting it to come out so angrily. It wasn't quick enough though, and the Joker's eyes narrowed before lifting his legs off of her lap, standing and crawling onto the bed in front of her with a growl..

Her legs quickly drew up towards her chest in an attempt to put distance between the two of them, but he quickly grabbed her legs behind the knees and yanked her forward, forcing her back onto the bed as he wrapped her legs around his waist.

Arella yelped, her arms shooting up between them even as he leaned down hovering over her with a sneer, watching the fear fill her eyes. She hated this position, and she knew that it was why he did it. It had nothing to do with sex at this point; he wanted to remind her of how much he controlled her and it was working. While he had always used suggestive comments and inappropriate touching to force her to watch her mouth, this was the first time they had ended up in this position and it scared her.

"I'm sorry." She said quickly.

He chuckled gave a dark chuckle. "You _know._ If you keep tempting me like this. I _might _not be able to _control _myself." He pressed his pelvis against hers, forcing her to acknowledge how excited he was getting.

Her whole body flinched, trying to move away to no avail. "I know. You're right. I'm sorry." She was begging now.

He stare at her for a moment before grinning and rolling off of her onto an empty space in the bed between her and the wall, pulling a knife out of his pocket, beginning to spin it as a warning. "You were _saying_?" He crossed his ankles, not giving a second thought to his feet on the bed.

She took a moment to scramble back up into a sitting position, trying to catch her breath before glancing over at the Joker who was staring at her impatiently. "I just meant…that it's complicated." She said slowly. "That's all."

"Well why didn't you just say so?" He laughed, waving the knife around and causing her to recoil away from him.

"How is he?" She continued, staring at her hands once he had stopped flailing.

"Excited to hear that you were _alive_." He gave a sadistic smile, deciding to leave out what had really happened at the house. No use in sullying her image of the man he would use to control her. "Real worried."

There was a long silence before she looked up at him, licking her lips, hoping that her next question wouldn't anger him. "Do you really expect me to believe…that you went in there…and simply, said hello, took my cat, and left?"

"Yea." He said simply.

Her eyes only remained on him as she tried to figure out his angle.

"I have a looooot of _fun _things planned for us soon. And as long as you _behave_, Shawn will live." He lowered his voice dangerously. "But if you try to escape…I _might_ have to visit him again. He made dancing motions with the knife. "London or not-ah." He bared his teeth at her.

She gasped slightly, turning away from him to look at Louie who had since jumped back onto the bed, curling up at the edge. So that was it, then. "I'm not running." She said softly.

"No. Not _now. _But I know how _tempting _it's going to be for you once we get back to Gotham."

Her eyes widened, temporarily forgetting everything he had just said once he mentioned leaving the building.

"We're going back?" She gasped, looking up at him hopefully.

His head tilted as he studied her, somewhat taken aback by her sudden change in demeanor. He couldn't help but wonder what it was she was planning.

"What are you so excited for?" He questioned finally, his voice still low.

"I just…we get to go out. _I _get to go out." She corrected, unable to stop the slight smile that spread across her face as she turned to the window next to her bed with a new level of hopefulness. She didn't care about getting away right now, didn't even care about why the Joker was taking them back to Gotham. She just wanted to experience the fresh air she had been deprived from for the last 3 and a half weeks. "When are we going? Tonight?" She questioned, turning back to him.

"_Yea_." He said slowly, casting her a sideways glance as he sucked his cheeks. He had to admit, this had not been the reaction he had been expecting. And he wasn't entirely sure if he liked it.

'She'll wipe that smile off of her face soon enough.' He thought to himself. With an exaggerated role of the eyes he pushed her aside roughly forcing a surprised yelp from her mouth as she fell to the bed behind him and he climbed off unimpeded.

"Take a shower and put those on." He flicked his head to a set of clothes on the chair heading to the front door "Be ready in fifteen minutes." He grumbled, resisting the urge to turn around and terrorize her into tears again. They had work to do tonight and that would only make his job harder. Instead he simply walked out, leaving her to prepare.

Back at the recently rebuilt Gotham General hospital, Shawn was lying in his hospital bed as nurses bustled outside his room to attend to the many people injured in a multi-car pileup on one of the city's major bridges. He had only recently woken up from the anesthesia haze the doctors had placed him under while they took time to stitch up the many cuts and slashes that had been gleefully placed amongst his body little over a day before. It had taken hour to stich them all up and the doctors had eventually stopped talking. Even he wasn't sure how many stitches had been needed and had honestly lost track of the number of slashes pretty quickly that night as his ability to pay attention quickly succumbed to attempts to avoid the pain. All he knew was that when he was finally left alone, bleeding profusely, he barely had enough strength to crawl to his cell phone and call for an ambulance before passing out. And having finally awoken in the hospital a couple of hours ago, he was promptly left to fend for himself once the novelty of him being stable began to wear off.

Reaching over to grab the call button that was hanging over the railing of the bed, he jammed it down four more times with a frown. Looking towards the doorway to see if one would stop. But none even bothered to look into the room. The nurses had come running the first six times he had called, but their responses was getting slower and slower.

"This hospital is a Joke." He grunted angrily, throwing the button onto the floor. It was useless anyway. He had spent the last hour calling his parents, his lawyer, and the cops all of whom were little help at the time being. And now, all he wanted was someone he could let his anger out on. Anyone. But instead, he could only lie still in an attempt to avoid more pain than was necessary.

He had almost drifted off to sleep again when a knock on the doorframe forced him awake.

"Mr. Westwood?"

Drowsily, he turned to the doorframe to see two men standing in the doorway in casual jackets. An older man with bushy salt and pepper hair and almost equally bushy eyebrows peering over thick rimmed glasses and a vastly younger brown eyed man with short dark hair slicked back and a determined gaze. He would almost peg them for father and some but he doubted that.

"Oh, Gotham's finest _finally _decided to show their faces? A couple of days late, of course." He muttered, turning back to the television.

The older man remained undeterred as he stepped further into the room. "I'm Commissioner Gordon and this is Detective Cooper. We're both very sorry about what happened to you. But we got your phone call to the station and…the Joker did this?" He questioned.

"That's what I said, isn't it?" He frowned, turning back towards them, beginning to get riled up. "He broke into my house and attacked me. Then fucking left me for dead. All for a stupid cat."

The commissioner gave a quick disbelieving glance to the detective next to him before turning back.

"I'm sorry, a….cat…sir?" The younger detective raised his brows.

"Yes. A Cat." He said slower as if they were children, narrowing his eyes and leaning forward as much as his pain would allow in an attempt to emphasize his point. "A mangy, disgusting, overweight cat. And it was all her fault. I want him found. I want both of them found. I don't care if you have to use every single officer in the city. I want it done immediately or my parents will sue this city for everything that it's worth."

"Who's fault, Mr. Westwood?" Gordon pressed, almost rolling his eyes at the threat.

Shawn's mouth dropped slightly. "Are you kidding me? _Her's_. Arella's. She sent him for her damn cat."

"Arella Morgan?"

"_Yes_." He threw his hands up. "Are you two even listening to me? Do they not teach English in public school these days?"

"I can assure you they do." Gordon gave a tight smile. "And you seem like a smart man, Mr. Westwood. In light of the video the Joker sent us showing her as a captive a few weeks ago, what makes you think that she's working with him now?"

"Why else would he be at my house? I've made it a goal to stay away from criminals. And I wouldn't put a whole lot of stock into that video. Who knows what skeletons she's hiding? I sure as hell don't."

"Would Arella have any reason to want you hurt?"

He sat back onto the bed with a sigh. "Look detectives, I'm a good looking guy. And rich to boot. So obviously, I have no trouble finding women, sometimes more than I can handle. I know that's hard for you two to understand, but sometimes feelings get hurt. Maybe she thought there was more between us than there really was. Maybe she found out about the others. I don't know and I don't care. All I know is she sent him. And I want her in jail for what happened to me." A long silence descended over the room as the second detective knitted his brows together in a mixture of confusion and revulsion and Gordon gave a slow nod.

"I see." Gordon said simply, reaching into his jacket pocket and pulling out a small voice recorder, setting it on the table with a soft tap. "Why don't you give us a rundown of exactly what happened and we'll leave you alone so you can get some sleep."

"I don't need sleep. I need justice to be served." He ordered through gritted teeth.

"We all do, Mr. Westwood." Gordon muttered, pressing the on button on the recorder.


	9. Chapter 9

*****Chapter 9, yay! Slight smut warning but who doesn't like a little every now and again? haha Hope you enjoy! And leave me your reviews! It keeps me writing. :)*****

It was fifteen minutes down to the second when the Joker stormed back into the room, finding Arella sitting on the couch, twisting her hair into a braid down her shoulder. She had changed into the black dress set out for her that was remarkably similar to the one she had been wearing the night before. When she picked it up, she had vaguely wondered if he had made a special trip out to get it. Apparently he liked it more than he cared to admit. The boots he had given her a month ago were laced tightly around her ankles and she had wrapped a loose sweater around her shoulders in case it was cold. Louie was curled up on the bed against her leg lazily, not even waking up to the open door.

The Joker raised a brow as he looked at her. He had half expected that he would have to drag her out of the shower, but there she was, still as wide eyed as he had left her. A scowl crossed his lips as he thought about her taking all his fun away tonight.

Arella quickly fastened a hair tie around the end of the braid before standing with a sigh, smoothing her hands over her dress. She was on edge. Anxious to get outside and nervous that she would do something to make him angry enough to reconsider taking her. A part of her knew that this wasn't meant to be no treat and that by the end of the night she would regret it, but it didn't matter. She would savor it while she could. It was a welcome break from the nonstop barrage of negative emotions over the past few weeks.

The Joker stalked closer to her, circling around her slowly as she remained still and silent. His eyes roamed over her body as a gloved hand reached out, trailing a slow line down her back while he stood, gauging her reaction. But aside from a small breath, she gave none.

He let out a small grunt before stopping right above the curve that led down to his favorite part of her before pulling away, disappointed.

"Let's go." He growled at her before heading out of the door.

Arella let out a small, unnoticed sigh before following. This was going to be torture but she didn't care. Maybe he would be less on edge once they got into the van.

When they got down to the loading dock, the Joker stopped suddenly at the bottom of the stairs causing her to trip into him, grabbing the back of his coat in order to remain upright. He only turned his head to look at her with a raised brow and scowl.

"Sorry." She said, quickly letting go and standing up straight, waiting for him to move again. It took a moment before he finally grabbed her arm, dragging her along behind him to a waiting van.

As well as she was trying to behave; she couldn't help the eye roll behind his back. Without a second look behind him, he pulled her towards one of two running vans, pushing her into the back. Arella barely paid him attention as she pulled herself to a seated position, looking around the van to find 4 of his men clustered into the front seats. Her eyes rested on the one she recognized from the night before. Rick she was sure his name was.

'That made sense.' She thought to herself. There was no one left alive to tell the Joker that he was there except for her.

He cast her a brief, nervous glance as well. He had probably been thinking the same thing. She was brought back to the present when she heard the Joker slam the door behind her settling on the floor near her as the van pulled off without further command.

Her eyes drifted over to him as he moved closer to her and spotted the black cloth in his hand. Of course he was going to blindfold her.

"You don't have to do that." She blurted out before she could stop herself.

She barely had time to apologize before the Joker grabbed her shoulder, digging his nails in as he turned her around to face the front of the van roughly. A short cry escaped her lips as he wrapped the cloth around her head, tying it much too tightly before pushing her onto the floor. It was a reaction she should have expected. The few times she had been with him in front of his men, he was always much more volatile. With a whimper, she tried to loosen the fabric which felt like it was cutting off her circulation but a low growl from the man above her caused her to abandon her efforts, deciding instead to curl up against the floor and force herself to relax. She _was_ getting out after all.

It was twenty minutes before the van finally stopped and she lifted her head cautiously. Everything was pounding by now and she wasn't sure she would have lasted a minute longer.

"We're _here._" Came the nasally voice at the same time a hand reached down and removed the cloth.

She gave a relieved sigh, bringing her hands to her head as she waited for the blood to rush back to where it needed to be. She couldn't see where they were through the tinted windows, but for the moment, she was glad for the darkness.

"Now, he moved closer to her excitedly, gripping a knife excitedly in his hand. "Let's not forget our…con-ver-_sa_-tion." He placed his spare arm around her neck. "If you try to run, I'll have to come _find _you. And we don't want that, do we?" He shook his head as if indicating what he wanted her to say.

She only mirrored his gesture in response.

"_No. _That's right." He smiled, handing her the knife in his hand. "This is for _you._"

She took it, her mouth dropping before looking up at him. She wasn't exactly sure what he wanted her to do, but she knew she wouldn't like it. He continued though, undeterred.

"The boys and I have a few errands to run, and I know how much you were _dying _to get outside. So how about you go out, have some-ah…._fun_, and meet me at the school in fifteen minutes?"

She only stare at him, utterly confused. "I don't understand. Where are we? What _school_? What do you want me to _do_?"

He only tilted his head, looking at her with false sympathy before moving closer to the doors and opening them both.

"Whatever you _have _to." He sneered, grabbing her arm and pushing her out of the van with a shove onto the concrete below.

Arella cried out in pain as she landed on her knees, losing grip of the knife as it clattered a few feet in front of her. The sound of the Joker's cackling laughter forced her head to jerk up and her stomach immediately dropped.

"No." She whispered to herself, quickly scrambling to her feet. "This can't be happening."

"Don't be late, sweet cheeks!" He called after her, giggling, slamming the doors.

She quickly spun around as she saw the rear lights flash in reverse before going into drive. "No!" She screamed, running towards it. "Please don't do this!" But she didn't make it closer than a few feet before the van squealed off, leaving her only with the sound of the Joker's laughter fading in the distance and the irritating feel of exhaust assaulting her nose.

She broke down into a painful coughing fit, trying to clear her lungs of the car's dirty exhaust as tears began forming in her eyes. It took a minute before she could finally stand up straight again, taking in her surroundings for the first time in nearly a decade.

It hadn't changed much since then. Things had simply gotten even more run down which was something she couldn't have imagined to be possible when she was a child. Glancing to her left, the doors to her old apartment were barely hanging on their hinges, graffiti decorated the wood and flyers flapped in the wind. Upon closer inspection, she swore she could make out bullet holes in the wall next to her. Instantly, she knew what school he meant. Her high school was only a mile or so from her old home and she remembered having to make that tretorous journey on foot once or twice when she missed the bus. She groaned, realizing that the time limit the Joker had imposed didn't leave enough time to take the route she used to; one through populated streets that unfortunately turned the trip into a little over two miles. No, she would have to take the shortcut through a number of shady alleys whether she like it or not.

It was the middle of spring, and though the weather was nice, she suddenly felt cold. With a shudder, she rushed forward to pick up the knife she had dropped, holding it close to her chest as she began to hyperventilate, looking around the rest of the neighborhood as she tried to consider any other option. The neon sign of the strip club across the street still acted as the only light source on the dark block and the same gaggle of men hung around the front entrance, hoping to get the chance to chat up a stripper on the way out after they had lost all of their money. But tonight, all eyes were on her: the horribly out of place woman that they had just seen get kicked out of a van. The Joker's van. Everyone knew that laugh and while it had initially caused them to shrank back nervously, she was fair game now that it was out of sight.

She could see four of the men whisper to themselves as their eyes stayed on her. Probably daring each other to make a move. It was obvious, now, that if she didn't make a move, she would never make it. Looking pitiful would only make things harder for her.

With a final sniff, she used the back of her sleeve to wipe her eyes before setting her mouth into a determined frown and beginning down the nearest ally, blending into the dark.

She was going to kill the Joker when she saw him again. It didn't matter if he beat her, or starved her because of it. She was going to take the knife in her hand and lose it in his throat. Picturing herself murdering him in the most gruesome ways she could think of propelled her forward. It was her sole goal at the moment to make it out so that he would pay.

It was relatively narrow in the ally, probably no more than ten feet across with tall buildings on both sides creating a ravine. A few homeless people slept huddled against the wall, forcing her to side step around them lest she trip. Small creatures rummaged through the excessive amounts of garbage that lined the streets, but she refused to look down. She hadn't ever been a fan of rats and she knew that the ones in this neighborhood were the size of cats. What she wouldn't give to be in her own bed in her nice apartment right now.

About ten minutes in, she saw a man leaning against a wall up ahead. Her steps slowed for a moment as she stare, unsure of what she should do. But it was the only way she could go if she ever wanted to get there. She wrapped her arms tighter around herself, sliding her hands inside her cardigan to hide the knife in her hand. The man seemed to notice as soon as she did.

He eyed her up and down with a smirk. "What's wrong, baby? I don't bite." He grinned, his arms crossed in front of him as he leaned against the wall.

Arella gave a disgusted grimace. He was obviously on drugs. Probably meth judging by the sad state of his teeth. Slowly, she started forward, glaring at him the entire time. He smiled again as she got closer.

"Where ya headed? Need me to walk you there?" He said in a hungry voice. "I'd walk _you _anywhere." His eyes traveled down her legs again.

She didn't reply, only stared. Now she was within twenty feet of him. Her heart was pounding in her chest and her hand closed even tighter around the knife.

"Are you deaf? Don't you hear me talkin' to ya'?" The man questioned, starting to get annoyed.

Her breath only shallowed as she tried hard to remain clam.

Fifteen feet

"Well you're a _rude _little bitch, ain't ya?" He stood up off of the wall, standing in the middle of the alley now and blocking her way.

Her steps faltered for a moment but she continued. With each step, she could feel her anger rising the closer she got to him. She was so sick of being intimidated and taken advantage by the men of this city simply because they could. Especially the Joker, she hated him most of all for putting her in this situation. And though she couldn't take it out on him right now, she could take it out on a useless meth head who insisted on trying to intimidate a lone woman in a dark alley. As soon as she was close, she was going to make him regret blocking her way.

"Guess I'll just have to show you some manners, huh?" he continued, unaware of the danger that he was in right now.

Five feet.

Her hand began to slide the knife out of cardigan as her breathing slowed. Before she could pull it out all the way however, a voice behind her made her pause.

"Hey! Stephen! What are you doing trying to mac on our girl? You know we get first dibs in this neighborhood."

'Oh you've got to be fucking kidding me.' She thought to herself, keeping her hands hidden as she threw a brief glance over her shoulder to see three men approaching her and the drug addict. Now it was four on one. She had to do something. She wouldn't be able to take them all on.

Stephen gave a nervous laugh. "Jesus, man. How the hell am I supposed to know which ones you've already had?"

"Well she's still walkin', ain't she?" The man behind her laughed. "Maybe if you're lucky you can have her when we're done."

Finally a thought popped into her head. She may not be able to take them all on, but right now, she had an advantage. The three behind her were at least another twenty feet away and the druggie in front was blocking her way, but distracted as he conversed with the others. If she didn't make a move now she'd never get to the school in time to kill the Joker and that was more important to her than anything at the moment.

With a hysterical shriek, she pulled the knife from her sweater, reaching back before swinging it deep into his abdomen.

His eyes went wide in shock but she didn't care. She yanked the knife out angrily before continuing to swing blindly, her mouth set into a tight frown. Even in her state, she didn't want druggie blood to get into her mouth. She didn't care where it struck him. It didn't matter. She just wanted him to hit the ground. She didn't stop until his body did, falling to the ground with a thud at her feet. She glared at the lifeless form, giving him a good kick before turning to the others, breathing hard.

All three of them still stood at the twenty foot distance she had last seen them, staring at her with wide eyes. She only glared at them all with rage in eyes, daring them to take a step forward as the junkie's body served as a warning.

"Man, I told you this was a bad idea." A man on the left said to who she assumed was the leader.

The center man glanced at his friend before turning back to her, holding his hands up in defeat before backing away slowly. He took a few steps before they all turned around, beginning off.

Arella let out a slow sigh, glancing down at the body near her feet as she noticed something poking out of his pants. She paused, making out the shape before bending down. She couldn't believe her luck. Hesitating, she pulled the small pistol out of his belt loop and stood. She didn't know a lot about guns, but she could figure out how to work a safety and how to fire.

Hesitating, she looked up at the three men who were sauntering away, contemplating. She couldn't stop thinking about all the screams and pleas for help she had heard over the years in her apartment only a half mile away. About the crude comments from the men and what they planned on doing to her. She was still angry, and what she did at this point didn't seem to matter much anyway. The Joker was never going to let her go alive. And she would probably die trying to kill him. So with a determined frown, she raised the gun shakily, shutting her eyes and pulling the trigger, ignoring the surprised shouts from the men. She kept pulling until the gun finally clicked notifying her of his empty chamber. Her eyes opened slowly, two of the men had disappeared around the corner, but one was lying on the ground not far away.

For the longest time, she couldn't move, staring at the two bodies lying in the alley. It was nearly a full minute before her body began shaking and she threw the gun down, looking at it as if she had never seen it before. Adrenaline was still pumping through her veins and she used it. Used it to turn on her heels and sprint the rest of the way, still holding the knife in her hands.

She didn't stop until she came near the school, seeing the familiar purple suit sitting in the back of the van, his legs dangling over the ledge as he rested his chin on his chest. His arms resting lazily on his thighs. His lips turned upwards into a smirk when he saw appear around the corner nearly twenty yards away.

Arella came to a stop, glaring at him for a moment before letting out an angry breath, flexing her hand around the knife before storming towards him.

His eyes flicked down to the knife in her hand but his smirk remained as he watched her come closer.

"Why so serious?" he questioned innocently.

That was enough to push her over the edge, with a growl, she lunged for him, the knife raised high above her head before bringing her arm down to stab him.

He quickly moved out of the way as she stumbled forward instead, catching herself on the edge of the car before whirling around to face him, seething.

"Now, _Ella_. I know you're mad." He said calmly holding his hands up in defeat and ducking out of the way again as she attempted it again. An animalistic growl escaped her lips as she turned again.

"Stay still so I can fucking kill you!" She yelled at him.

"Well that wouldn't be _fair._" He laughed, only egging her on as she swung once more. This time, his forearm met hers, blocking the attacking and using his free hand to grab her wrist, twisting the knife behind her back and pushing her onto the ground, face down, quickly straddling her back as he wrenched the knife away from her.

She screamed angrily, trying her best to kick him or slide from under him. She didn't care which one. But he was too strong. Tossing the knife away, he grabbed both of her wrists as she struggled, lifting himself from her back and moving backwards to pull her to her knees and yanking both of their bodies back so that they were now seated, her between his legs. Tightening his grip on her wrists, he pulled her arms across her body and held her tightly against his chest much like a human straight jacket. It didn't stop her from trying to wiggle out of it, still growling and kicking angrily.

"Sh-sh-sh." He said into her ear, licking his lips as he breathed hard, waiting until she tired herself out from struggling and was mostly still. It took nearly two minutes of them sitting like that before she finally stopped tugging, breathing hard as well.

"I know you're mad…" He started again, tightening his grip as she tried to squirm out again. "Hey hey hey." He warned, waiting for her to stop once more.

"Fuck you!" She yelled at him, still pulling at her arms hysterically. "I hate you."

He chuckled lowly. "Hate me all you want, darling. But you _enjoyed_ that."

"No. You made me do it. You did. It's your fault." She growled.

He laughed. "Me? I just told you to meet me _here_. Now, maybe you did have to kill our junkie friend. But those other two were all you, sweet cheeks. And I know you _liked _it." He growled lowly in her ear. "How's it feel knowing you can walk the streets of Gotham at night _all_ by yourself?" He sang. "Hmm? How did it feel _knowing_….that because of _you_, those men won't hurt anyone else?"

She had finally stopped struggling, simply laying limply against him, staring up idly at the sky as the cool breeze blew across her sweaty brow and her breath returned to normal. It was a beautiful night out. She had never noticed how pretty it could be even in her neighborhood. There was always some danger to look out for, something to pay attention to that kept her focused until she got home. And now, as she sat in the middle of the street, with the man who posed the greatest danger to her yet, all she felt…

…was calm.

"Come on. Be honest with your good friend Joker." He continued, pulling her from her musings. "Did you _like_ it?"

Hesitantly, she nodded, not taking her eyes away from the sky.

A wide grin spread across his face. "_All _that time spent being afraid of what they could do to you in the dark and you turned the tables in fifteen minutes." A soft giggle escaped his lips. "I'm proud of you kid."

She took a deep breath, listening to the absolute silence of the area around them before finally speaking. "How did you know?" She questioned softly.

"Did you _really _think I wouldn't follow you?"

She had, honestly. If she had known differently, she wouldn't have been near as terrified. But that didn't answer the question that she really wanted to know.

"No. How did you know…about everything?"

"I told you, sweet cheeks. Your apartment is an open book. You keep records of _every_thing."

She nodded slightly, closing her eyes for a moment. She couldn't even be bothered to be angry. Not at this point. She wouldn't have expected anything else from him. If she was completely honest with herself, it was nice to be understood.

"Are you _calm_ now?" He questioned after a long moment, finally releasing her arms and sitting away from her.

She gave a slow nod, keeping her arms wrapped around herself to fend off the chill she was feeling now.

"Come on." He stood, holding his hand out for her which was in sharp contrast to the yanking her normally did.

She ignored his hand for a moment as a realization dawned on her. She had been sitting here screaming bloody murder for the past 5 minutes and yet, not one came. No one even bothered to check or call the cops. There was nothing. It angered her, Maybe this city didn't deserve to be protected from itself. Maybe they did need someone like the Joker to remind them of all the dark sides that they tried to forget.

She turned to the Joker whose hand was still stretched out with a growing impatience. She knew that if she took his hand she was effectively turning her back on Gotham. She was choosing death over a chance to rejoin society if she ever escaped. But for once, she felt calmer than she had ever felt. Not plagued by a guilt that should have never been hers to begin with. For once, she felt alive.

'Fuck 'em.' She thought to herself before turning to the Joker who was waiting impatiently. She finally took his hand with a sigh, standing. He grinned happily, dropping her hand and leading her over to the van humming happily.

Arella stopped by the back door, waiting for him to open it before looking up to see him walk to the driver's side, pulling the door open.

The goon in the front seat stared at him wide eyed, unsure of what was going one. "Wha…what's wrong, boss?"

The Joker tilted his head, looking at him annoyed as he sucked on his cheeks. "You're in my seat." He growled, his hand itching to pull the knife from his pocket.

"Sorry boss." He jumped out without another word, running to the back of the van.

"Oh _Ella_." He called through the night air.

She peeked from behind the van in acknowledgement as he started to climb into the driver's seat.

He looked back at her with a smirk. "You ride in the _front _tonight." And with that he jumped in. The goon in the front seat needed no other cue to climb out and rush to the back. Arella, though, hesitated for a moment, looking back at the neighborhood that she would hopefully never have to see again.

"Move it!" Came a loud voice from the van to break her from her stupor.

She jumped slightly, running to the passenger side. As calm as she felt right now, the Joker still terrified her. As she shut the door behind her she looked over to the Joker who grinned at her, waving the block cloth at her.

Her lips pursed and she sighed, knowing there was no point in arguing.

"Sorry sweet cheeks." He said with a laugh, reaching over and tying it tightly around her head before speeding off recklessly down the street.

Back at the hideout, the Joker was carrying Arella over his shoulder back to the fifth floor as he hum to himself. Completely ignoring her as she lay relatively still against his back. It was all for the better. Her blindfold had been removed since the van had pulled into the garage but she found herself distracted as she thought back to the earlier events, replaying the night in her head in an attempt to test her emotions. She didn't believe the calmness of her mind at the moment and continuously tried to force herself to feel a shred of sympathy or regret. Any emotion that would make her feel the way she assumed someone should and that she hadn't completely lost her mind. But nothing came. There was no way to make it happen and eventually, she got bored with trying. She had been so distracted with replaying everything that she had barely realized that they had passed the door to her room.

Her breath hitched in her throat nervously before she propped herself up against his back, looking around confused. "Where are we going?" She questioned softly.

He continued to hum for a moment as they approached a door.

"_You _need a shower." He replied before heading through the door.

She glanced down at her hands, realizing how true that statement was. Her hands and arms were covered in blood for the second time in a 24 hour period and she could feel the sweat beading up in her hair. Now that he mentioned it, she felt disgusting. When she looked up, she noticed that they were back in the industrial bathroom that she hadn't seen for months. The floor had been swept and the area mostly cleaned Her heart began to quicken in realization as she looked around. He would want to watch, probably help. He did enjoy that.

"Ya nervous, sweet cheeks?" He questioned with a throaty chuckle.

Her eyes jerked to the green hair behind her before turning down to her hands which she didn't even realize were gripping the back of his jacket tightly. Her hands released the jacket as she lowered her head again, trying to relax her heartbeat, but before she could, the Joker slid her from his shoulder, setting her down on her feet in front of him, standing in front of one of the showers in the rows of shower heads in the rooms. She couldn't imagine what it was like for people who had stayed in this hospital, there was practically no privacy.

He looked her over, taking in her disheveled appearance. The one he enjoyed so much. Luckily her dress was still intact, It was one of his favorites and he had actually made one of his men pick up 3 more because he planned on making her wear it so much more often. Whenever she was blindfolded in the van, he would use the opportunity to stare at her legs and sometimes backside poking out of it. And now, as she stood there, apathetically covered in blood, he couldn't help but grin. She was so much _fun._

"I _do _like you in blood." He said with a happy growl. "Maybe we'll just-ah…skip the shower."

Arella glanced up at him, conflicted. On the one hand, she would much rather shower in her own room, alone. But she hated the idea that it was on her now that it had been brought to her attention and all she wanted to do was get it off as soon as possible.

"s'junkie blood." She muttered before mentally rolling her eyes. Sometimes she had no idea why things came out of her mouth, but it seemed to happen often in awkward situations.

The Joker let out a loud, cackling laugh before placing gloved hands on her shoulders and spinning her around to face the shower head. "Get undressed."

She gasped slightly as her body shook nervously. Casting a side glance over her shoulder where she saw the Joker walking away across the room to the toiletries that had been left there the last time they were in the room. So he was going to wash her again.

With a sigh, she turned back around and began shed the cardigan, tossing it aside before reaching down and untying the boots, tossing them aside lazily as well before reaching around to unzip her dress.

"hmm-mmm." An ungloved hand pushed hers away. "I'll get _that._" He said with a grin, grabbing the zipper and pulling it down slowly, appreciating the smooth skin that appeared with each inch. He would much rather be using his knife, but there was no use ruining the dress now. When it reached the bottom, he quickly slid it off her shoulders, tossing it aside before reaching onto the surgical table. He may have wanted to preserve the dress, but her underclothes were fair game.

Arella gasped when she heard the click of the knife and spun around nervously, but the sight that greeted her was enough to draw her attention away from the knife and cross her arms over her chest in an attempt to cover herself.

"Why the hell are you naked?" She spat out accusingly before she could stop herself. She tried hard to keep her eyes on his face as she said it, a feat that was almost impossible considering she normally tried to avoid looking at him in the eye. She had never seen him without his full regalia and to see him like this, almost human aside from the greasepaint that still covered his face, was more terrifying than the outfit.

He held his arms up in front of him, the knife clenched loosely in his left hand as he gave her a confused frown. "I don't like to get my _clothes_ wet." He said simply, lifting the knife to continue his work on her bra.

"I don't believe you." She said finally, breathing hard, taking a quick step back to feel the cold tiles against her back, unwittingly allowing her eyes to briefly flick down his body. He was thinner than she imagined, but it was probably because of the slouch he usually walked with to make himself appear larger. Even still, she could see that he was solid. Every muscle was defined by slight shadows that showed his strength. She had always maintained that he was deceptively strong, but looking at him now made her statement only half true. He was obviously strong. And she could tell that his strength came, not from pointless exercises like many of the meatheads she came across at her gym, but from hard work. From running around the city from the police, chasing mob bosses, and fighting the batman. No, his muscles looked more natural instead of artificially bulged. Scars crisscrossed his abdomen telling a story of the rough life that he led. None as bad as the ones on his face, but she could tell that he had seen his share of fights. And between his thighs, her quick assessment could tell that he wasn't the least bit aroused. Not yet at least.

He tilted his head slightly, following her eyes for a moment before smirking. "What's wrong, Ella, find something you _like_?"

She didn't reply, turning her head away from him, her eyes on the floor as she tightened her arms around herself. Her mind was running in a thousand places at once. For a moment, she considered making a run for it, at least back to her own room. Maybe it would make the Joker mad enough to just push her around a little before leaving. At the same time, however, she didn't want to be in the room alone. Aside from the past couple of days, she had spent nearly every day of her month here alone in that room. And she had no desire to go back to that.

The Joker's tongue darted out to lick his lips, giving an exaggerated roll of the eyes.

"It's _just_ a shower." He said finally with an annoyed growl, he placed a hand on her shoulder again, forcing her back around and pressing her into the tiles before quickly sliding his knife under her bra and slicing the thin fabric.

With a whimper, she tried to push back against him but he held her against the wall, doing the same below. He tossed the knife aside and reached forward, turning the shower knob on before finally releasing her. She squealed, jumping backwards as they were both hit by the cold stream, trying to escape the jolting effects, but the Joker only laughed, placing his hands on both shoulders holding her still and forcing her to adjust to it.

Her arms quickly wrapped around her body as she shivered, waiting for the water to warm with nowhere to go. When the Joker was finally satisfied that she wasn't going to pull away from the water, he finally released her, letting his right hand travel up her shoulders and neck, trailing down to the tip of her braid where he carefully and silently pulled the hair tie off, beginning to unravel the braid.

"You _know_." He started, his voice low, leaning forward into her ear as he slowly unwraveled each loop of her, taking his time as he spoke. "I know how you feel, trying to…_understand_ the past 24 hours. Trying _desperately _to figure out what's wrong with you, what _changed_. Why you aren't reacting the way you . ?" He gave a sympathetic frown, tugging at her hair almost gently to turn her to face him. "It's always…_hard_ the first time, isn't it?"

Arella lowered her eyes from his, giving a slow nod. It was hard. She was dying inside wondering if she was broken beyond repair. If she ever did a chance to escape from here, would she even be able to live a normal life? People killed out of self-defense all the time and seemed okay afterwards. But she knew that her case was different. She wasn't scared when she lifted the knife to Jonathan and the junkie. She was angry.

As she smelled the scent of shampoo begin to permeate the air, she could almost hear the Joker grinning beside her as he leaned closer to her ear, guiding her head forward out of the water stream and lowering his voice to almost a whisper.

"_I _don't think you're crazy." He said, his shampoo filled hands reaching into the mess of hair near her scalp to pull the tangles out before beginning to massage it gently. It felt nice, she had to admit as she leaned her forehead against the tile walls as she watched the water at her feet flow from red to pink and back again.

"I think you _fi_nally understand what I've been trying to explain all along. What the...cops and politicians don't want you to."

It was quiet for a long moment as the Joker continued to massage the shampoo into her hair. She didn't bother to question what he meant, or urge him to finish. She simply stood there and enjoyed the feelings of fingers in her hair. Even when she was a teenager, she would beg her grandmother to wash her hair for her. There was nothing like the feel of a head massage from foreign fingers to relax her. She didn't even care whose fingers they were at this point.

After what felt, admittedly, far too soon, those fingers stopped moving, one hand disappearing as the other leaned her head back into the water so that she was staring up at the skylights while the shampoo began dripping from her hair. In the back of her mind, a voice was screaming at her, reminding her of who it was that was behind her this whole time, telling her that she should try to run again or at least insist on washing herself. But she didn't care. Not after the night she had. Once most of the shampoo had dripped from her hair, she heard the voice continue, detailing every emotion she had gone through tonight, putting her at ease.

"These…_rules_ they tell you must be followed. "This…established order." She felt the sponge from last time against her stomach, a completely different scent of body wash wafting up towards her as the hand began to move across her body, drifting up her ribs slowly until it reached only centimeters from her chest before traveling back across her midsection innocently. Her eyes started to look down but the hand in her hair guided it backwards, resting it against his right shoulder, using his right hand to hold her hips in place as his left hand used the sponge to explore her body.

She avoided looking at his face which was ducked down as he spoke, paying more attention to the sponge in his hand. Instead, she kept her eyes on the ceiling, taking in his words as he toyed with traveling closer and closer to where her thighs met as he spoke. She didn't push him away. She wasn't sure she could if she tried, so instead, she kept her hands on the wall in front of her.

"They're not _real_." He continued finally. "And people who don't realize that…will _always_ be helpless. Little. Victims to those who do. Like you _almost _were. And I _was." _

His hand drifted casually along her breast as he rubbed the body wash into gentle circles across one nipple before moving to the other. Suddenly, she became very aware of the pressure along her lower back. He was getting excited and she could hear it in his voice which was steadily becoming more gravelly with each sentence. The voice at the back of her mind was screaming now. But she only closed her eyes, ignoring it. She was sick of fighting. Sick of trying to pretend that she would get out of here. Her mental energy was spent and all she could do was rest against him. He had forced her to kill and now she would never be normal again.

"But in the end…it's people like _us_…that survive. To remind them how fragile this ….system they set up really is." His hand traveled down along her abdomen again as he leaned his lips even closer to her so that she could feel the soft, jaggedness his scars against her ear as he spoke lowly now. "_That_ is why you killed. Why you _will_ kill. And why you will always _enjoy _it."

It was with his final words that Arella felt his fingers slide inside her wet folds, rubbing gently across the nub that she hadn't even realized was swollen until now. She gasped, pulling her head away from his shoulder in surprise and bringing her left hand down to grab his wrist. But his right hand held her hips in placed as he slid a finger within her lips again, making small tortorous circles before she had a chance to protest. The feeling of his wrist flexing under her hand was almost too much to take and she let out an unwanted moan before laying her forehead against the tile wall with her eyes closed, allowing him access.

She could almost hear him grin as he revealed in the wetness that she had yet to accept was accumulating inside. It wasn't long before he shifted his hand slightly, replacing his caressing finger with a thumb and sliding that finger inside her, pulling it in and out slowly.

It was torture for her. The voice in the back of her head had since quieted to a whisper, and now all she wanted was for him to go faster. For the teasing to stop. Another moan escaped her lips as he reached even deeper, pulling her hips against him firmly to remind her of how excited he was getting, the full length of him pressing against her backside. Before sliding his right hand up to her nipples, pinching them gently as he cupped her. It surprised her how gentle he was being right now. And if she closed her eyes, she could almost forget where she was. It had been far too long since someone touched her like this, and after being forced into solitary for the last 4 weeks, it was far more welcome than it probably ever should be.

As he leaned down, catching a small patch of skin between his teeth before beginning to suck, she almost came completely undone, moving her hips to match the movement of his fingers before she could stop herself. She wanted this right now and she didn't care if he knew it. She was almost shuddering with excitement, sliding her backside against him in an attempt to force him into her.

Finally, she felt the teasing poke against her entrance. Her eyes opened, second guessing herself only briefly before she felt him slide into her, inch by inch, he gently pushed past any resistance, forcing her eyes wide as he stopped almost halfway

"Oh God. She moaned softly, squeezing her eyes shut , hearing him grunt against her neck as he paused, allowing her to stretch to fit him. But she was impatient. She wanted all of it and she wanted it now. Moving impatiently, he finally gave her what she wanted, pushing into her the rest of the way. Pushing past any resistance and giving her every inch of him until their bodies were flush against each other his hands still grasping her hips tightly.

"Fuck!" She whimpered painfully. She had only seen him when he was relaxed, but in his excied state, the pain was almost unbearable as she forced herself only her toes, her hands reaching back to grab his forearms to steady herself. Even with the pain though, her eyes shut blissfully as he stilled, waiting for her walls to adjust to him.

She felt his hand travel down to her lips again, caressing her for a long, agonizingly slow moment before pulling his head away from her neck with a happy hum.

Arella shut her eyes again as her whimpers finally began to subside the pain that was initially present turning into a twisted form of pleasure. But as she loosened her grip on his forearms, giving him a cue to continue, he gave a low chuckle, removing his teeth from her neck and leaning down to her shoulder, kissing her skin before pulling out of her and stepping back out of the water stream.

She froze, suddenly surprisingly cold as she turned behind her with a confused, begging look in her eyes. The smirk that met her was almost enough to crush her as she straightened up, wrapping her arms around herself.

He resisted the urge to laugh as he glanced at her complete bewilderment when he walked away and grabbed a towel to wrap around his midsection/ Taking his time to wrap the towel tightly around himself, he turned back around where she was still staring at him, confused and unmoving. It was almost too perfect.

"See you later, kid." He smirked before walking out of the bathroom.

Her eyes only widened in disbelief before the weight of what had just happened began to hit her. Turning back to the wall in front of her, she pressed her forehead against the tile for a long moment with a frustrated growl as she waiting for her hormones to get under control. She was hurt, and embarrassed. But most of all, she was _angry_. Over the past month, she had gotten used to the Joker's special brand of torture, but this was too much. He couldn't have just gotten her excited and left. No, he wanted to invade her first, to make her use the experience as a reminder of what she had allowed to happen before he left her there. She stood in the same position for nearly five minutes, unmoving before turning off the shower angrily, storming over to the stack of towels and grabbing one before carelessly wrapping it around herself and storming out of the bathroom and to her room. When she got there, she slammed the door behind her angrily, waking up Louie who had been previously passed out on the couch. Never before had she felt so humiliated and unfulfilled. Who did he think he was? Part of her considered storming to his room and making him give her what she wanted, but the idea was almost laughable. Not only did she not dare to barge into his room, but the idea of her making the Joker do anything was ridiculous. Finally, she gave up, dropping her naked body on to the bed to finish the job herself. It barely took her thirty seconds before she finally rolled over, thinking of ways to kill her captor as a way to help her sleep.


End file.
